Illegal to raise rent after work has been done?

[Sy Chan]

My tenant is responsible for all landscaping of my SFH and last month I received notice from the city that the property was in violation due to no landscaping maintenance for a long time (at least a year). I told tenant to fix this by hiring a gardener to do the work and reminded her of her responsibility, yet nothing was done, so received a 2nd letter from the city. So i just had my gardener do the work at a cost of $500 out of my pocket.

I read it was illegal to raise rent if work was just done that was the landlord's responsibility, but in this case it is the tenants.  So just making sure it won't be an issue when I send her notice next week of raising rent ($200/month plus another $50 for monthly maintenance as my gardener will be returning 2x/month).  I'm in county of L.A. if it makes a difference.

Thanks in advance for assistance.

This looks to be the most active landlording forum out there so look forward to contributing and learning alot!

[Mike McCarthy]

No issue with raising rent on a mtm lease as long as you give the required 30/60 day notice per either your lease or state laws.

For what it's worth, I think you're on the right track handling landscaping yourself and building it into the lease.  I probably wouldn't even say it's $50/mo for landscaping.  Instead say you're raising the rent $250 and you're handling it.  Minor difference, but it one alleviates the tenant from having to worry about it, and also there's no question if they cut the grass once, it's not going to decrease the rent that month.