Eviction Horror Story
You think the eviction for the AirBnB Tenant from Hell was bad?
All information in this post is 100% real, public information, and posted with client consent and encouragement.
This is a story about the worst case of a 'professional tenant' I came across/worked on. Over $100k in unpaid rent, over 9 months of litigation, jury trial, appeal, countless motions, and a lot of bad faith.
Late 2021
My client visits her property after the tenants notified her they are moving out. It's an apartment in Santa Monica, 3-Bedrooms with hardwood floors, ten blocks to the beach. Rent at the time was about $3700/m (market rate was about $5500).
She opens the door and is greeted by an unknown occupant, a middle-aged woman who says 'she is living here, that's my house'. She won't leave, police are called but they can't do anything. "Civil matter - you have to evict her." So this is where I come in.
Turns out one of the former tenants subleased one of the rooms for extra cash and did not notify my client. The occupant was so obnoxious and rude, all the rest of the tents fled elsewhere shortly after she moved in. They found her on CraigsList.
We had to wait until the moratorium was over to file an eviction (March 2023). The moratorium restricted evictions not just on unpaid rent, it also protected 'unauthorized occupants'. It also protected denial of access to the unit - so we could not inspect the unit for over 2 years.
After we filed the eviction, the tenant got free help from a local non-profit, which represented her zealously and aggressively.
A list of what we fought in litigation:
-Motion for judgment on the pleadings
-64 document requests; 51 special interrogatories; 31 RFAs, and a total of almost 230 discovery requests.
- Every single motion, answer, appearance, response, and opposition was filed at the very last minute, on the very last day. Every single one of them.
-4 different requests to delays the trial date, 1 emergency request to delay so defendant can attend a voluntary "math bootcamp" at a local community college.
-9 months of litigation
- Jury trial - the defense initially requested 5 days(!) for the trial. Luckily the judge pushed through, and we did it in less than 1.5 days.
- Every offer to settle and gain possession was rejected by the lawyers for the Defendant. In mediation, the only offer she would consider is full waiver of the rent and a new lease, for $1300/m, with veto power on who will be her roommates. My client rejected that offer and went to trial.
- On the day of the scheduled jury trial, after confirming with opposing counsel in writing of Defendant's availability and trial readiness - turns out she couldn't make it since she was vacationing in Mexico and her return flight delayed, so trial got delayed again, despite pleading to the judge to move forward.
-At trial, Defendant perjured herself repeatedly on the stand, defamed my name, defamed my client, admitted to committing fraud, and testified for several hours in a 1.5-day trial.
- Defendant had 2 lawyers represent her in the trial, and they objected to every Plaintiff's verdict form, every suggestion to move things forward and push through. The defense even objected to introduce their own exhibits into evidence, once it was clear it was hurting their case.
- Defendant's lawyer removed each and every property owner juror from the panel, we ended up having was 100% renters as a jury.
- On the stand, Defendant admitted to taking close to $9,000 in covid-19 rent aid, pocketing the check, forging the paperwork, and not giving it to the landlord. She still has the money to this day.
- Jury gave a unanimous verdict, for the Plaintiff, possession and damages.
- Tenant then continued to file or attempt to file multiple emergency motions to reverse the judgment. I received 13 different post-trial ex-parte notices of motions to delay or cancel the lockout.
- She got 2 actual hearings to vacate the judgment on calendar, both rejected.
- Due to a severe shortage of manpower in the County's Sheriff office, it took 9 weeks from the moment we submitted the writ of possession until we got the sheriff to show up. 2.5 months after the jury verdict.
Day of the lockout
- Sheriff officers show up. We have a locksmith ready. Despite her being in the unit - she refused to let the sheriff officers inside. They had to break the door with a ram (see picture). For absolutely no reason, just another way to cost the landlord more money.
- She continued to stay in the unit, arguing for about 45 minutes on why she should stay. Didn't help - she was evicted and now out of the unit.
- Once we walked into the unit, we were shocked at how well she lived. When you don't have to pay for rent for 2 years, you have plenty of money to spend on other things.
- I should add, the Defendant filed an appeal, which is still ongoing, although in default. Thankfully, an appeal of a UD judgment does not stay the lockout.
- The Defendant attempted to break back into the unit 3 weeks after the lockout. Luckily there were workers there to block her path. Police showed up again, and we had to bring paperwork to prove she was trespassing.
- This 'professional tenant' is well versed in the eviction legal system. Based on our research, we found out she went through 4 different evictions in the past 12 years. All followed the same pattern - jury trial, lies, fraud, appeal, violence, and trespassing.
- After one of these evictions, she called a locksmith to break in back into the unit. Police got involved and arrested her for trespassing after the landlord presented evidence. That was 10 years ago.
- Last Friday, I get an email from the City Attorney's Office, inquiring about how my office violated a 'court order' and my client was harassing the now evicted tenant. The lawyer from the city wanted to get on a call and discuss.
- I asked the city attorney what evidence he had to initiate the call and making those allegations. He said "None. I am just checking since the tenant called us a lot, we have to verify those claims". After explaining to him what transpired he assured me the investigation will go nowhere.
- This is not the first time the City Attorney's Office contacts me without evidence. When I asked the lawyer for the city why they are placing the burden on the landlord to prove there was no harassment or violation - he insisted they are not. He could not provide an answer why he didn't ask the tenant for proof before contacting me.
- The non-profit that represented the tenant dropped her after the jury trial. In one of the motions the tenant filed on her own to reverse the judgment, she then had the ultimate hutzpah to blame her past lawyers for the result in trial for malpractice.
- She went as far as attaching email communications she had with her lawyers, waiving her att-client privilege. Her lawyers begged her to settle before trial, tenant just refused.
- Other reasons she asked the court to reverse the judgment - her disabilities (she listed a dozen, all mental health related), COVID-19, the war in Israel, her part-time status as a 55-year-old community college student, and the "pro-business city council of Santa Monica". The court rejected all of her motions.
This is not even the full story. A lot was not included, for many reasons.
This tenant will not face any consequences. She has no assets, no income, no family, and no career prospects. There is zero chance to collect any of the $25k judgment against her (remember - most of the rent owed was during covid, so we had to sue for that amount separately).
I said it before - there are zero consequences for not paying rent in LA. I mean that literally. You can not pay rent, delay proceedings for months, and it would still make sense for the landlord to settle with you before trial, waive the rent, seal the record, and even offer you move out costs. Zero consequences.
Tenants deserve protections. But we have to ask ourselves at what point these legal burden/costs are pushing mom and pop landlords out of the business.
If Los Angeles wants only ruthless private equity landlords, this is a surefire way to get there.
Picture related: LA County Sheriff preparing the ram the door at the lockout.
You think the eviction for the AirBnB Tenant from Hell was bad?
All information in this post is 100% real, public information, and posted with client consent and encouragement.
This is a story about the worst case of a 'professional tenant' I came across/worked on. Over $100k in unpaid rent, over 9 months of litigation, jury trial, appeal, countless motions, and a lot of bad faith.
Late 2021
My client visits her property after the tenants notified her they are moving out. It's an apartment in Santa Monica, 3-Bedrooms with hardwood floors, ten blocks to the beach. Rent at the time was about $3700/m (market rate was about $5500).
She opens the door and is greeted by an unknown occupant, a middle-aged woman who says 'she is living here, that's my house'. She won't leave, police are called but they can't do anything. "Civil matter - you have to evict her." So this is where I come in.
Turns out one of the former tenants subleased one of the rooms for extra cash and did not notify my client. The occupant was so obnoxious and rude, all the rest of the tents fled elsewhere shortly after she moved in. They found her on CraigsList.
We had to wait until the moratorium was over to file an eviction (March 2023). The moratorium restricted evictions not just on unpaid rent, it also protected 'unauthorized occupants'. It also protected denial of access to the unit - so we could not inspect the unit for over 2 years.
After we filed the eviction, the tenant got free help from a local non-profit, which represented her zealously and aggressively.
A list of what we fought in litigation:
-Motion for judgment on the pleadings
-64 document requests; 51 special interrogatories; 31 RFAs, and a total of almost 230 discovery requests.
- Every single motion, answer, appearance, response, and opposition was filed at the very last minute, on the very last day. Every single one of them.
-4 different requests to delays the trial date, 1 emergency request to delay so defendant can attend a voluntary "math bootcamp" at a local community college.
-9 months of litigation
- Jury trial - the defense initially requested 5 days(!) for the trial. Luckily the judge pushed through, and we did it in less than 1.5 days.
- Every offer to settle and gain possession was rejected by the lawyers for the Defendant. In mediation, the only offer she would consider is full waiver of the rent and a new lease, for $1300/m, with veto power on who will be her roommates. My client rejected that offer and went to trial.
- On the day of the scheduled jury trial, after confirming with opposing counsel in writing of Defendant's availability and trial readiness - turns out she couldn't make it since she was vacationing in Mexico and her return flight delayed, so trial got delayed again, despite pleading to the judge to move forward.
-At trial, Defendant perjured herself repeatedly on the stand, defamed my name, defamed my client, admitted to committing fraud, and testified for several hours in a 1.5-day trial.
- Defendant had 2 lawyers represent her in the trial, and they objected to every Plaintiff's verdict form, every suggestion to move things forward and push through. The defense even objected to introduce their own exhibits into evidence, once it was clear it was hurting their case.
- Defendant's lawyer removed each and every property owner juror from the panel, we ended up having was 100% renters as a jury.
- On the stand, Defendant admitted to taking close to $9,000 in covid-19 rent aid, pocketing the check, forging the paperwork, and not giving it to the landlord. She still has the money to this day.
- Jury gave a unanimous verdict, for the Plaintiff, possession and damages.
- Tenant then continued to file or attempt to file multiple emergency motions to reverse the judgment. I received 13 different post-trial ex-parte notices of motions to delay or cancel the lockout.
- She got 2 actual hearings to vacate the judgment on calendar, both rejected.
- Due to a severe shortage of manpower in the County's Sheriff office, it took 9 weeks from the moment we submitted the writ of possession until we got the sheriff to show up. 2.5 months after the jury verdict.
Day of the lockout
- Sheriff officers show up. We have a locksmith ready. Despite her being in the unit - she refused to let the sheriff officers inside. They had to break the door with a ram (see picture). For absolutely no reason, just another way to cost the landlord more money.
- She continued to stay in the unit, arguing for about 45 minutes on why she should stay. Didn't help - she was evicted and now out of the unit.
- Once we walked into the unit, we were shocked at how well she lived. When you don't have to pay for rent for 2 years, you have plenty of money to spend on other things.
- I should add, the Defendant filed an appeal, which is still ongoing, although in default. Thankfully, an appeal of a UD judgment does not stay the lockout.
- The Defendant attempted to break back into the unit 3 weeks after the lockout. Luckily there were workers there to block her path. Police showed up again, and we had to bring paperwork to prove she was trespassing.
- This 'professional tenant' is well versed in the eviction legal system. Based on our research, we found out she went through 4 different evictions in the past 12 years. All followed the same pattern - jury trial, lies, fraud, appeal, violence, and trespassing.
- After one of these evictions, she called a locksmith to break in back into the unit. Police got involved and arrested her for trespassing after the landlord presented evidence. That was 10 years ago.
- Last Friday, I get an email from the City Attorney's Office, inquiring about how my office violated a 'court order' and my client was harassing the now evicted tenant. The lawyer from the city wanted to get on a call and discuss.
- I asked the city attorney what evidence he had to initiate the call and making those allegations. He said "None. I am just checking since the tenant called us a lot, we have to verify those claims". After explaining to him what transpired he assured me the investigation will go nowhere.
- This is not the first time the City Attorney's Office contacts me without evidence. When I asked the lawyer for the city why they are placing the burden on the landlord to prove there was no harassment or violation - he insisted they are not. He could not provide an answer why he didn't ask the tenant for proof before contacting me.
- The non-profit that represented the tenant dropped her after the jury trial. In one of the motions the tenant filed on her own to reverse the judgment, she then had the ultimate hutzpah to blame her past lawyers for the result in trial for malpractice.
- She went as far as attaching email communications she had with her lawyers, waiving her att-client privilege. Her lawyers begged her to settle before trial, tenant just refused.
- Other reasons she asked the court to reverse the judgment - her disabilities (she listed a dozen, all mental health related), COVID-19, the war in Israel, her part-time status as a 55-year-old community college student, and the "pro-business city council of Santa Monica". The court rejected all of her motions.
This is not even the full story. A lot was not included, for many reasons.
This tenant will not face any consequences. She has no assets, no income, no family, and no career prospects. There is zero chance to collect any of the $25k judgment against her (remember - most of the rent owed was during covid, so we had to sue for that amount separately).
I said it before - there are zero consequences for not paying rent in LA. I mean that literally. You can not pay rent, delay proceedings for months, and it would still make sense for the landlord to settle with you before trial, waive the rent, seal the record, and even offer you move out costs. Zero consequences.
Tenants deserve protections. But we have to ask ourselves at what point these legal burden/costs are pushing mom and pop landlords out of the business.
If Los Angeles wants only ruthless private equity landlords, this is a surefire way to get there.
Picture related: LA County Sheriff preparing the ram the door at the lockout.
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