Of mice and money
Landlord tries to dump 20 tenants from infested Altadena cottages; half ask court to stop evictions or force payment for relocation
By André Coleman 01/08/2009
One night in September, Sonia Romero and her husband Agustin — now among 20 tenants facing eviction from run-down one-bedroom apartments on North Raymond Avenue in Altadena — trapped a dozen rodents.
But that wasn’t the last time the family had to endure that type of horror. Two weeks ago, Sonia Romero was shocked and appalled to find mice crawling on her sons, Eduardo, 3, and little 1-year-old David, as they slept.
Although such problems would force most tenants to seek another place to live, the Romeros and others living in the small one-bedroom cottages located just south of Woodbury Road in Altadena, along the city line with Pasadena, can’t afford a bigger, better apartment.
“We don’t have any money to leave and we don’t have anyplace to go,” Sonia said. “My husband doesn’t have a job. It’s been really hard for him to find work.”
But they may be forced onto the streets anyway. Property owner Ahmad Nowaid has already served 20 tenants — many of them families — with eviction notices, including the Romeros, who have all complained about unsanitary conditions at the complex.
And, unfortunately, there may be nothing anyone can do about it.
According to California Civil Code 1946.1, “The landlord can serve the tenant notice to vacate within 30 days. The landlord does not have to provide any reason for the eviction, unless a rent control ordinance requires just cause. If the tenant does not leave within 30 days of the notice, the landlord can file a suit for the eviction.”
However, those tenants are claiming that Nowaid broke the law when he refused to fix troublesome plumbing that continuously backs up into kitchen sinks and bathtubs, leaving a rancid odor. The tenants claim he has also failed to deal with pervasive insect and rodent infestation, similar to the problems in Romero’s apartment.
To that end, they have all refused to pay rent — which ranges between $850 to $950 per unit per month — and have placed the money into an escrow account.
Tenants can legally withhold rent if the landlord has not complied with the warranty of habitability, according to California Civil Code 1941.
But Nowaid doesn’t seem to care. “By law, we have to give them 30 days notice,” he told the Weekly. “We gave them 60 days notice. We are not kicking everyone out, just people in some units that we are going to rehab. We are not going to let those tenants move back in, because they have refused to pay their rent. The bottom line is they are out there trying not to pay their rent. I used pesticides on the units. There are no problems.”
Tenants say Nowaid plans to place dividing walls in their apartments, turning each apartment into two small studios, then keep the rent the same in order to make even more money off the property that he purchased in July.
Attorney Philip Koebel has filed a complaint in Superior Court on behalf of 10 of the families involved, alleging “a breach of implied warranty of habitability, breach of the rental agreement/lease and the failure to provide habitable premises.”
Koebel is asking for at least the equivalent of a couple of months rent to help families relocate. He would settle for Nowaid agreeing to allow the families to stay until the end of the school year, since many of them have children in local schools.
“A lot of people have been here just for a year,” Koebel said. “We’re not talking about lifelong residents, but they have all expressed the same concerns — that before it was sold they were getting some response from management. After the sale, they were told that the repairs weren’t going to be done because the whole place is going to be repaired after everyone moved out; not technically illegal, but it heads towards [breaching] the warranty of habitability.”
The warranty of habitability guarantees tenants a safe and healthy living environment, free of infestation and faulty wiring, and with adequate containers for refuse.
“The bugs are all over the house,” said 20-year-old Cruz Bravo. “When we got here, there were a few roaches and spiders, but when they started doing construction, they came out more. Our sink gets clogged up and smells really, really badly. The spiders and roaches climb through a vent hole. I am scared for my 4-year-old brother.”
Like Romero, Bravo is living in an apartment way too small for four people. The 20-year-old caregiver, who lives with her mother and two siblings, said that when her mother complained about the bugs, the landlord did nothing, forcing her to cover the vent with tape. They then placed an entertainment center over it.
“I am shocked somebody would do this,” said Bravo. “He has no heart. How could he just come in and tell 20 people to leave? I am sure if he was in our situation he would look at it in a different way, but it’s very heartless of him to just come and say I don’t care what you have or what you don’t have, just go.”
Earlier this year, Nowaid fumigated the units. He admitted that he did it himself and gave the tenants less than 12 hours notice on a Friday night that he would be spraying for bugs.
Reportedly, tenants were told they had to be out by 9 a.m. the following Saturday because their units would not get bombed if they remained. Several tenants had nowhere to go and their units were not fumigated. According to Bravo, the roaches hid in those apartments and returned a month later with a vengeance.
“If we have to get up and go, we’ll put everything in storage and hopefully we can stay with my uncle in LA,” Bravo said. “I hope that doesn’t happen because LA is pretty far. My mom goes to work at 7 and my sister goes to school at 7. They would have to leave every day around 5 a.m. so they don’t catch any traffic. It will be hard for my mother because I get off at 7 a.m. and there would be no way I could help her. We’re here because this is what we can afford.”
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