A couple displaced by the Eaton Fire in Altadena is suing their landlords for charging nearly $15,000 a month on a short-term rental, alleging the price violated California's post-disaster price-gouging bans, according to a lawsuit reported by LAist. The case, filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, arrives the same week the county is set to end its emergency rent protections. The Renicks — Candy Renick and her husband — argue the landlords, Catalina Chow and Terrence Chow, exploited their desperation after their smoke-damaged home was deemed uninhabitable.

Nearly triple the legal cap: $14,938 rent versus HUD's $5,032 limit

When Candy Renick found a three-bedroom furnished home in Glassell Park on Zillow less than two weeks after the Jan. 7, 2025 fires, the asking price for a one-year lease was $12,990 per month. She and her husband asked for a shorter six-month lease; the landlords agreed but raised the rent to $14,938.50,as LAist reported. Under California's emergency price-gouging rules, a furnished rental property that was not listed before the disaster cannot exceed 165% of the area's fair market rent set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. For that ZIP code, the legal maximum was $5,032.50 — meaning the Renicks paid nearly three times the allowable amount.

Why the city attorney's warning letter didn't stop the charges

Shortly after moving in, the Renicks received a letter from the L.A. City Attorney's Office alerting them – and their landlord – that the listing might violate the post-fire price-gouging ban. The letter urged the landlord to immediately lower the rent and refund any overcharge plus 10 percent interest. According to the lawsuit, when the Renicks texted a screenshot of that letter to Catalina Chow, she replied, “We did not increase rent due to the state of emergency.” LAist contacted Chow for comment but could not reach her, nor co-defendant Terrence Chow. The City Attorney's Office did not respond to queries about why it did not pursue the matter beyond the warning.

The first civil rent-gouging case from the January 2025 fires

The couple's attorney, Josh Nuni of the People's Law Project, told LAist that to his knowledge this is the first civil lawsuit filed by private citizens over price gouging following the January 2025 wildfires. Over the past 16 months, prosecutors have filed only a handful of criminal rent-gouging charges, and tenant advocates have expressed disappointment over the lack of enforcement after the Palisades and Eaton fires... nuni said the Renicks want not only to recover their money but also “to send a message to others that this shouldn't be done to other families when they're in times of crisis.”

18,000 suspect listings and the enforcement gap that persists

By the one-year anniversary of the fires, a tenant advocacy group called The Rent Brigade had identified more than 18,000 rental listings that appeared to violate the price-gouging laws, as reported by LAist. The Renicks' case highlights a pattern: emergency protections are only as effective as the will to enforce them. With the county's post-fire rent protections set to expire,the lawsuit raises a critical question about whether temporary bans can deter exploitation when landlords face little risk of prosecution. The outcome of this civil suit could set a precedent for thousands of other tenants who may have been overcharged.