'It's Not My Problem'

Thursday, January 15, 2009
Andre Coleman
Pasadena Weekly

Twenty families hoping to stay in their small cottages in Altadena - despite alleged problems with rodent and insect infestation - have left their homes as part of a settlement agreement with the property owner, even though many admittedly now have no place else to live.

The families, who are mostly Latino with few members able to speak English, agreed to vacate the small $1,000-a-month one-bedroom cottages they were renting on North Raymond Avenue, just south of Woodbury Road, by Jan. 9.

In exchange, property owner Ahmad Nowaid said he would not report the evictions to credit agencies, and that was it - no relocation options, extensions or money to move. In California, an eviction can remain on a credit report for seven years, making it difficult for tenants who were evicted to find a decent place to live.

By Friday afternoon, only two of the families scheduled to vacate remained in the units. They did not wish to comment for this story.

"They all agreed to move out and waive any claims," said Nowaid's attorney, Michael Ribbons. When asked why the tenants agreed to a settlement forcing them to move, Ribbons responded: "When you don't have a basis to bring a lawsuit, it's pretty simple to resolve these things."

According to Nowaid, the families were being evicted for refusing to pay rent on time. Nowaid gave the families 60 days notice when he served them eviction notices in November - double the time the law requires landlords to give tenants to get out. California law also states that a landlord may evict without providing any reason, unless a local rent control ordinance requires that just cause be given. If the tenant does not leave within 30 days of the notice, the landlord can file a suit for eviction.

The families claim that they withheld the rent after Nowaid refused to do anything about substandard living conditions, which included mice and roach infestation and plumbing that constantly backed up and left a foul stench. They claim Nowaid wanted them out so he could divide the tiny units and charge the same rent.

Nowaid denied the allegations of not fumigating, and acknowledged that he is subdividing the units, but said that has nothing to do with the evictions.

Philip Koebel, the Pasadena attorney hired by some of the tenants, claimed that by not properly exterminating pests Nowaid had violated the "warrant of habitability," which guarantees tenants a safe and healthy living environment. The law allows tenants to withhold rent if habitable conditions are not maintained.

Koebel placed the December rent, which came to about $10,000, in an escrow account and filed court papers asking for relocation fees or a settlement that would allow the families to stay until June, when school was out and children could help with the moving. Each of the 10 families represented by Koebel includes school-age children.

"My clients were essentially made whole by the settlement," Koebel wrote in an email to the Weekly. As part of the agreement, the money from the escrow account was returned to the tenants, who forfeited their security deposits to pay December's rent. "But few if any of them have another place to move to, so there was not much celebration."
Phone calls Monday to several tenants went unanswered.

"We asked [Nowaid] to let us stay here for 60 days for free so we could have the money to move out," 20-year-old Cruz Bravo told the Weekly in December. "His response was, 'It's not my problem that you don't have money. I am not going to lose in this. You guys need to get out.'"

Bravo, who lived in one of the units with her mother and younger siblings, told the Weekly that the units were infested with roaches and that the plumbing clogged up, leaving a foul stench. The family was forced to place an entertainment center over a vent they covered with tape because insects were using it to gain access to the dwelling.

Former tenants Sonia Romero and her family battled mice, and one night caught a dozen of the rodents. Romero said later that she found mice climbing on her toddler children in December.

"[Nowaid] was just being obnoxious," Romero said. "He thought we were threatening him. We just wanted to talk to him and see if he could give us some more time."

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