The City of Santa Barbara has filed criminal charges against a property manager at 215 Bath St. alleging that he failed to comply with the just cause eviction ordinance.
An arraignment was set for Tuesday, but it was pushed back to June 12, according to Denny Wei, an assistant prosecutor in the City Attorney’s Office.
The city filed charges against James Knapp, a partial owner and property manager for the apartment building. The three misdemeanor counts allege that he terminated tenancy without just cause, failed to comply with the city’s just cause ordinance and failed to serve proper permits.
The charges come after the property owner served just cause eviction notices to 11 tenants at 215 Bath St., a 52-unit complex. When one of the notices expired and the tenant had not vacated, the property manager filed an unlawful detainer complaint, according to the city.
The Legal Aid Foundation, in defense of the tenant, objected and alleged that the property owner did not comply with the ordinance. Attorneys said the property owner needed to state a specific time to complete the work rather than stating “more than 30 days.” In addition, the attorney for the Legal Aid Foundation said the owner failed to include the correct copies of permits.
Knapp, in an interview with Noozhawk, said the charges are outrageous and that he complied with the city ordinance, but that the ordinance is vague.
“This is political,” Knapp said. “This is them trying to send a message.”
Knapp said they provided permit documents that they felt were sufficient and identified the permit numbers, but the tenant’s attorney said they also needed to provide other permit records such as “the application for the permits in the street file.”
They rescinded the notices and issued new ones in April, but a week later the city filed the charges. Knapp told Noozhawk that the building needs electrical and plumbing repairs that require vacating the property for more than 30 days.
On May 3, Wei notified Knapp’s attorney, Kevin Nimmons of the law firm Reicker Pfau, that the city was filing the three misdemeanor charges, according to documents reviewed by Noozhawk.
Wei also met with Knapp’s attorneys Thursday afternoon to discuss the case.
Wei and the Legal Aid Foundation declined to comment on the specifics of the case, since it is active litigation.
Nimmons said the ordinance needs to be clarified.
“It would benefit tenants and landlords if there was a clear, unambiguous ordinance from the beginning and that wasn’t revised repeatedly so that landlords can rely on a consistent clear set of rules so they can run their businesses pursuant to them,” Nimmons told Noozhawk.
“Now, if you make a mistake, you could be criminally charged when the landlords in their mind are proceeding in good faith, and that is not good for tenants, landlords or the city that is charged with enforcing this.”
Chris Parker, one of the Bath Street property’s owners, wrote a letter to the City Council.
“By taking this approach, the city is telling landlords not to fix up properties,” he wrote. “Property managers will refuse to manage apartments in fear of getting criminally charged for minor, good faith defects in a notice to terminate.”
Parker also said he doesn’t understand how Wei would know how long the work would take to complete without visiting the site.
“How (Wei) made this determination without first having had a discussion with ownership, visiting the property or understanding the conditions on site is unclear to us. Meanwhile, we are 45 days into construction on adjacent units and we are not even halfway completed,” Parker wrote.
Parker said the building needs serious plumbing and electrical work and that it would be unsafe for the tenants to remain. He provided letters from contractors to support his claim.
“We have been hired to complete the plumbing replacement work at 215 Bath Street in all three buildings as well as the electrical rewire in building A,” licensed contractor Louie Mena wrote in a letter to the city. “The entire knob and tube system is extremely dangerous and needs to be replaced. It would be impossible to do so with tenants in place. The electrical had only two circuits. It’s a miracle that there hasn’t been a fire or an issue yet.”
‘Renovictions’ and Just Cause Evictions
The criminal charges come after several housing complexes have had so-called “renovictions,” where property owners evict tenants or do not renew their leases, citing a need to renovate the buildings they live in.
The original residents are often not able to return to their homes because they can’t afford the increased rents on the renovated apartments.
The city in recent years passed a just cause eviction ordinance that requires displacement assistance and other protections, but not the first right to return at the same rent as before the renoviction.
In Isla Vista, Core Spaces purchased CBC & The Sweeps and sent eviction notices to 550 tenants last year, claiming it needed to renovate all the buildings.
The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors responded with an ordinance that stated that property owners need to have building permits in hand before sending out eviction notices to tenants for major renovation work.
City Council Comments
Stanley Tzankov, a co-founder of the Santa Barbara Tenants Union, spoke during public comment at Tuesday’s City Council meeting about the situation at 215 Bath St.
The ownership “used a barrage of tactics, both legal and illegal, and I would argue unethical, to get the tenants to leave voluntarily, or self-evict,” Tzankov said. “They have been pressuring residents to leave with offers of relocation assistance, while also creating a chaotic environment for the holdouts who refuse to take the deal.”
Ownership representatives say the tenants union is encouraging the remaining tenants to stay to force the issue for its own political gain, with hopes of strengthening the tenant protections ordinance, but that such a tactic could potentially risk tenants’ relocation assistance.
Brian Munoz, who leads the residential property management group at Westerlay in Santa Barbara, spoke at Tuesday’s council meeting during public comment to question why the city would file criminal charges rather than work the situation out with the property manager.
He said the property manager signed the notices, but that attorneys at Reicker Pfau reviewed all of the work.
“Expert attorneys are struggling with the ordinances, and I don’t know how mom-and-pops in this town can possibly navigate these ordinances,” Munoz said.
He said prosecuting property managers would backfire.
“If this continues to happen, there won’t be property managers in Santa Barbara,” Munoz said. “It simply is not worth the risk and struggle. Landlords and property managers are an integral part of this community, and it is time to protect our rights as well.”
Nick Gonzalez, a property owner with fewer than 10 units and a member of the Santa Barbara Rental Property Association, told Noozhawk that the ordinance is vague and unclear.
“There’s panic within the mom-and-pops right now,” Gonzalez said. “The city is going to unintentionally force people who need it the most to live in unsafe conditions. This is going to put a huge chill on mom-and-pops.”
The post Santa Barbara Files Charges Against Property Manager Over Just Cause Evictions appeared first on Noozhawk.