LA County landlords must keep rentals below a certain temperature starting in 2027

Forget “California cool” — the Golden State is now demanding actual cold.Los Angeles County is turning up the pressure on landlords — by telling them to turn down the temperature.Starting Jan.1, 2027, landlords in unincorporated parts of LA County will be required to keep rental units at 82 degrees or cooler, marking a major shift in what counts as a livable home as Southern California battles hotter, longer and increasingly muggy heat waves.The new rule makes cooling part of the county’s habitability standards, joining long-standing requirements for basics like heat and hot water.In other words: a rental with a working heater but a summer sauna vibe may no longer cut it.“Statewide habitability law does not set a standard for cooling,” Amy Tannenbaum, supervising attorney with Public Counsel’s Homelessness Prevention Law Project, said in a recent interview with LA Public Press. The catch? The new rule won’t cover every LA renter sweating through the summer.It only applies to unincorporated LA County communities, meaning renters in cities including Santa Monica, Pasadena, Inglewood and Glendale are not automatically protected.That leaves many Angelenos with an LA address still wondering whether their landlord has to keep things chill — literally.The Los Angeles City Council has asked city departments to study whether Tinseltown should adopt a similar indoor temperature requirement, but no citywide rule has been approved yet.The timing comes as California’s heat problem is becoming harder to ignore.Research from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography shows the state’s average summer temperature has already climbed roughly 3 degrees since 1896 and could rise another 2 degrees by 2040 if current pollution trends continue.And it’s not just hotter — it’s stickier.Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, said Southern California’s recent heat waves have become increasingly humi...