Real Estate/Development,
LA Fires
Apr. 10, 2026
Effective use of writs of mandate in a crisis: Enforcing housing law after the Eaton Fire
When the Pasadena/Altadena wildfires left rental housing standing but uninhabitable, the problem was not the law but its enforcement--making the writ of mandate a particularly sharp tool for closing that gap.
When wildfires tore through the Pasadena/Altadena area on Jan. 7, 2025, they left behind two kinds of destruction. The first was visible, with many homes reduced to ash. The second was harder to see and in some ways harder to address: thousands of rental properties left standing but saturated with toxic smoke, ash and debris, rendering them uninhabitable.
Landlords had clear obligations, and tenants had clear rights. What was missing was any reliable way...
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