East Palo Alto's biggest landlord refused Wednesday to submit records of its recent rent increases to city attorneys and said it will skip today's scheduled court deposition.
Contending that the information is confidential and constitutionally protected, an attorney representing Page Mill Properties' rental management company, Woodland Park Management, LLC, said Wednesday that delivering the information could expose the landlord to further liability.
"Individual tenants who reside in these units have an interest in this information remaining private," attorney Andrew Zacks said.
The decision comes about a week before the two parties are to meet in a San Mateo County Superior Court hearing, at the city's request, where a judge will determine whether Page Mill's rent hikes are legal. City Attorney Valerie Armento said the judge could choose to freeze the rents temporarily at next Friday's hearing.
Over the last year, Page Mill has levied about 2,200 rent increases in its 1,600 East Palo Alto units. One tenant said her rent jumped more than 100 percent and others said their rents went up between 20 and 40 percent. The vast majority of tenants, however, got increases of less than 10 percent, according to Page Mill.
The city is contending that Page Mill violated its rent control ordinance and recently asked a judge to issue a temporary restraining order to block the rent hikes.
Its request was rejected, however, partially on grounds that the city only had a plaintiff list of 10 tenants.
That's exactly why the city has been pursuing more information from Page Mill, said Rick Jarvis, an outside attorney for the city.
The city is entitled to the information under its rent control law, Jarvis said, and a judge allowed it to move forward with collecting evidence for next week's hearing. Jarvis also said he would accept a list with names blacked out.
"They're telling the court that we don't have evidence that tenants are complaining, and at the same time, they're refusing to give up that evidence," Jarvis said. "It's pretty outrageous. They're definitely trying to have their cake and eat it, too."
Also on Friday, Armento said, a judge will take first glance at claims by Woodland Park Management, LLC, that a recent registration increase passed by the East Palo Alto rent stabilization board, which brought fees per unit from $135 to $240, is illegal.
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