topic Tenant Earthquake Retrofit Expenses in Deductions & credits

Tenant Earthquake Retrofit Expenses

notanumber — Sat, 31 Aug 2019 16:40:31 GMT

As a tenant in Los Angeles I have to pay monthly my landlord a portion of their expenses for Earthquake retrofit expenses. The landlord can collect this fee from their tenants for 10 years after the retrofit.

Can I, as a tenant, deduct these expenses?

Re: Tenant Earthquake Retrofit Expenses

dmertz — Sat, 31 Aug 2019 18:14:24 GMT

It appears that you cannot deduct this expense. With regard to tenants, this appears to be simply a rent increase that would otherwise not be permitted under local rent control.

It appears that various bills have been introduced in the California legislature to provide some kind of state tax credit for these expenses, but none has been signed into law as far as I can tell. Looking at the current legislation in committee, https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB234, it also seems that the credit would be provided to only building owners, in part for amounts not passed on to tenants that otherwise could be passed on, not a credit to tenants.

Re: Tenant Earthquake Retrofit Expenses

Anonymous — Sat, 31 Aug 2019 18:16:50 GMT

if you have a home office or run a business out of the property part would be deductible, entirely opersonal - nothing deductible - just more rent expense.