lisa

City: 
Costa Mesa
Residence Type: 
3 or 4 units
Landlord Type: 
Private Landlord -- No Rent Control

ORANGE COUNTY TRULY LACKS ANY ADVOCACY GROUPS FOR TENANTS & LOWER INCOME PEOPLE! ITS HELL!

I loved where I live, a small one bedroom not more than half a mile to the ocean. I loved it especially when in April of 2000 I saw an ad for it in the paper and thought it was a joke at $550 a month, either that or "something" was not right about the place. Well it was for real and nothing was wrong with the place! It was the property of a man of another generation entirely! A good decent man and his wife who over the years bought a few duplexes or small apts and still lived very modestly. I got all my friends throughout the years to rent here. We hardly ever bothered complaining unless something was beyond our abilities to repair. My garbage disposal broke...Heck I went I bought a new one myself. After 13 years my rent is still just $650 a month. Unfortunately my landlord at 93 years of age and his wife passing away a few years before, he passed away. I recall some members of his family looking at me and the other tenants at the funeral puzzled since "we were tenants" but he was a good man and we wanted to say our goodbyes and pay our respect.
Well even with the property completely being paid for outright, the son-in-law was to frazzled at being a landlord of a 4 1bedroom building which all the tenants were low maintenance and had been there for the least amount of years was about 6 years. Worst part is the son in law was too cowardly to actually tell us ahead of time that he was selling the place, instead he had some realtor guy play it off like he was going to be a new property manager for the owner. He claimed they needed to do a property inspection in late August for insurance reasons, blah blah blah.
Well the day of the "inspection" I was at home and when it involved a plumber, electrician, gas, structural, and terminate guy; when the fat lady in the cheap suit was voice recording her notes on every detail of each unit, I knew this wasn't what we were told. The termite guy seemed cool so I asked him if the potential buyers were coming by. He said they weren't potential, they were the buyers and paying in cash to insure a fast escrow. SIGH!
Two weeks later, we get a notice and a phone call informing us of this property management group who were representing the owner. They are both a prop management and an owner.
So on the close of escrow we all get 60 day notices. I nearly fainted when I saw what rent prices shot up to in my area, and everywhere else around me. But what could I do?! I went searching for my old rental records and realized that there was a signed contract with the old landlord stating the $1200.00 security deposit was agreed could be applied toward last month's rents. So thinking these fools had all the rental documents when I called to let them know to apply rent for Oct out of that money, no one calls me back. Then a 3 day notice is posted on my door. I call an speak to Tana, the manager about the written agreement and the amount of $1200 and she becomes defensive and tells me my deposit is just $550 according to the sales contract. I told her I was not party to that contract of sale and then she tries to tell me that it overides whatever docs I have on me. NOT QUITE! I make copies of everything and place them in the drop box and certified mailed another copy, proving my records and the 3 day notice was invalid. I called I emailed and nothing.
I come home Thursday late night to find an unlawful detainer summons taped to my door. It from an eviction mill law group and part of the complaint says I entered into an oral agreement with the predecessor in interest on august 24 2013! NOTHING ABOUT THE 13. 5 years or an actual rental contract in place. You think I'd be able to get an attorney to take my pretty solid case right? Oh heck no! The cheapest one was $800. So now I have the stress of already having to pack, find a new place, oh and no rental history reference for the past 13 years I could use, but now I must spend all this time and energy with even more added stress to fight this and am terrified as even though I have an actual document, since I am self representing, the superior court judges in OC are not the kind who care about the truth or facts anylonger and will rubber stamp any agency or attorney over a pro per party, and for this, all I would get is to be able to stay here for an extra 2 weeks before the 60 day notice is in place. I am certain I won't get any of the remaining security deposit even though this apt is going to be completely gutted and redone, so there is money I really can't afford to lose but for some reason they ate able to pull this crap on people in Orange County and there is NO Where we can go to for help! I'm moving back up toward LA, even though I like being so close to the ocean and it's nice here, I'm treated like a second class citizen and big bullies like these property managers are always favored by the courts even without any truth to their claims. I just don't have the strength to fight it or think any start up group will even make a dent in this county. It's sad and seems like it's only getting worse. Oh and my little 650sqft 1bedroom apt in an old building just one house behind a bar is going to start renting at $1650 per month one I'm out. That's insane! So here I come Long Beach, the last place one could find a studio under $1000.

Help build power for renters' rights: