Renters have no way to check if their apartment building is seismically safe

A renter in Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Seattle has no practical way to determine whether their apartment building has been seismically retrofitted before signing a lease. While some cities maintain public lists of buildings subject to mandatory retrofit ordinances (like LA's soft-story inventory), these lists tell you only whether a building was flagged, not whether the retrofit was completed, how extensive it was, or whether it meets current standards. There is no disclosure requirement in most jurisdictions that forces landlords to tell prospective tenants whether the building has been retrofitted, what its structural type is (soft-story, non-ductile concrete, URM), or what its expected performance in an earthquake would be. Tenants are making one of their largest financial decisions, choosing where to live, without access to safety information that the building owner and the city both possess. If the building collapses or is red-tagged in an earthquake, the tenant loses their home, their belongings, and potentially their life. Landlords face liability for negligence if they failed to comply with retrofit mandates, but tenants only discover this after the earthquake. The problem persists because real estate disclosure laws focus on environmental hazards like lead paint and asbestos, seismic retrofit status was never added to standard disclosure forms, and landlords have a financial incentive not to advertise structural deficiencies.