Los Angeles fire evacuees face price gouging

Just days after an inferno razed Pacific Palisades, Maya Lieberman is desperate to find somewhere to live. But unscrupulous landlords who are jacking up prices are making it hard

SANTA MONICA: Just days after an inferno razed Pacific Palisades, Maya Lieberman is desperate to find somewhere to live. But unscrupulous landlords who are jacking up prices are making it hard.

“The price gouging is going haywire, it’s obscene,” the 50-year-old stylist said. “I can’t find anywhere for us to go.”

Huge fires that have torn through Los Angeles since Tuesday have levelled whole neighbourhoods, turning swathes of the city to ash.

More than 150,000 people have been ordered to leave their homes as authorities try to keep down a death toll that has already reached 16.

One blaze devastated Pacific Palisades, an up-market enclave that was home to celebrities like Billy Crystal and Kate Beckinsale, which, until this weekend, was some of the most desirable real estate in the US.

With the area now under a compulsory evacuation order, even those whose homes survived the inferno need to go elsewhere for the foreseeable future.

The higher-than-average incomes of people forced to leave homes there appears to have tempted chancers, who see the opportunity to make money from others’ misery.

“We put in an application at a house … that was listed at $US17,000 ($28,000) a month, and they told us if we didn’t pay $US30,000, we weren’t going to get it,” Ms Lieberman said.

“They told me they have people ready to offer more and pay cash. It’s absolutely insane.”

Similar stories of apparent price gouging abound.

“I have friends who booked a hotel outside Los Angeles, and when they arrived there, they were asked for a higher price,” said TV producer Alex Smith, who has been forced to leave his home.

The sharp practice has drawn the ire of California Attorney-General Rob Bonta, who warned on Saturday that there were laws against it.

“Price gouging is illegal. We will not stand for it. We will hold you accountable. We will prosecute,” he said, adding those found guilty could land themselves a year in jail.

Once a state of emergency is declared – as it has been for the out-of-control fires – vendors cannot increase their prices by more than 10 per cent.

That applies to small businesses as well as to mega companies whose automated tools use supply and demand to set the cost of everything from hotel stays to concert tickets.

“If those algorithms lead to prices higher after the declaration of emergency than before, by more than 10 per cent, you’re violating the law,” he said.

AFP