I think this is a horror story that all landlords should take notice of:
A disabled senior citizen with two disabled daughters, my dream to own an apt. Bldg. Was realized a few years ago when I purchased a small 6 unit in West Hollywood. The long-term low paying (1/4 market rent) paying tenants came with the deal.
I was able to evict one tenant under the "landlord occupancy" law, for my disabled daughter to reside. Another tenant was evicted when I proved she had been breaching her lease for 10 years. Three of the other units are gay males, who are model tenants, who I get along with great. The problem is the one remaining old maid paralegal tenant, who's mission is to destroy my life.
She challeges everything that takes place with the building, through letters of complaint to me by mail, fax & email. She files false and frivilous complaints with the city (run by the gay & lesbain community, tenants themselves, who pass outrageous, landlord - discriminatory laws to benefit themselves, and back up this tenant and all other tenants.) Through her bulldog attorneys (who have even threatened to "get a court appointed executor to take over my managerial duties" on my building!) she files lawsuits against me, my attorney's fees alone exceed my annual rental income! Examples:
-she filed a complaint with the city re: cosmetic cracks in her 1932 building walls, caused by the Northridge earthquake, 12 years later. They city forced me to remodel her entire unit. One week after it was professionally painted, she repainted it. Lawyers told me I couldn't evict her.
-she sanded down & stained my natural hardwood flooring, then poured the wood shavings, cat litter & cat hair over my car's canvas roof. Lawyers told me I couldn't evict her.
-she sued me last year for a clock radio playing in another unit for a few days & won a $30,000 default judgment against me for attorney's fees.
-she converted the bathroom into a closet so DWP could not install low-flush toilets to save on MY water bill & refused to convert it back. I had two lawyer's who filed an eviction against her, only to dismiss it after being threatened with "sanctions" by her attys.
Tomorrow morning I am being sued in court by her for over $20,000 in alleged attorney's fees. She still remains living in the unit.
Upon buying the building, I discovered it was known as "Jim Morrison (The Doors) last known U.S. Residence." I gave media interviews (including the LA Times), put a plaque on the front of the building, and began renting out Jim's former apt.By the day, week or month to Doors fans worldwide. It wasn't long before the troublemaking, busybody tenant notified the city, who then sued me, and forced me to remove the plaque, along with a cease & desist order from renting out MY apt.in MY building on a short-term basis, accusing me of "turning it into a hotel."
All my hopes and dreams were destroyed by the actions of one old maid tenant who using her legal savy and blood-sucking attorneys, has created a "file" on me as an alleged "slum landlord" who "harasses" her, a shrewd plan in order to secure her low-rent position by preventing me from ever being able to evict her under the "retaliatory eviction" law.
(If a tenant files a compalint against a landlord, the landlord cannot evict the tenant for 2 years, thus considered a "retaliatory eviction.")
So the complaints keep coming against me like bullets!
March UPDATE: I prevailed in the $20,000 alleged attys fees case, where Judge Stone determined I owed her nothing. However, in retaliation, she lifed a criminal "tenant harassment" complaint against me with Weho, who was only too happy to assist her. Rather than to serve me at the address on file with them, Weho mailed it to an incorrect address, which resulted in the Judge issuing a warrant for my arrest with $50,000 bail. Last wk. I had to hire a criminal atty & turn myself in. I now face an arraignment & trial on bogus charges, when in truth I am the one who has been victimized by the this tenant, her bulldog lawyers, and the corrupt City of Weho all these years.
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