The following is a copy of a letter sent to the L.A. County Department of Consumer & Business Affairs.
I am a landlord. I have called various different numbers seeking information and I need to get an appointment with a consultant, and get information and assistance, and also file my complaints.,
I have had to spent hours on hold, and I am in the process of probably having to engage an attorney. You folks, let me say, have made it quite impossible for landlords to be kind to their tenants. You are simply the reason, quite frankly, that rents are being forced to be increased.
I am requesting an appointment with someone who can assist me, and I am outlining my observations and unfairness and craziness in your thinking that are going to make people like me lose my home.
The latest thing you have done is simply outrageous. When a landlord wants to be kind to their tenants, they cannot. It is detrimental to their well-being, as I am sure you can quite obviously see.
I have a tenant who lived in my home under a lease for one year. They pay $3,100 for a four-bedroom, 2.5-bath home. I pay for pool maintenance, gardener, pest control, insurance and property taxes. This is a hefty amount of up-front costs plus repairs and maintenance monthly before even any mortgage would be paid.
He had a lease for a year, and I renewed it for an additional year. Now he has not paid the $3,100. However, you kind folks say because I am not charging him $3,170 per month, he cannot be served with a three-day notice to pay rent or quit, and I have to wait, because of this $70 undercharge, until he is past due, now it will be two months rent, and he will owe me $6,200 before he can be served a three-day notice.
What is going on in this state is outrageous, and it is little wonder people want to leave, and are leaving in droves.
I was further outraged when someone told me today, I cannot remember what utility it was, I believe the Department of Water and Power, they were told to pay on time for six months and the past due will be forgiven — while I got a recent electric bill for $398.68 for one month, having to keep my air set at 84 degrees, to make sure I can afford to pay my bill, at my age of almost 73 years old. I am having to deprive myself, and I do not want to pay for someone else to live.
Something is wrong with this whole picture.
Jo Joshua
Stevenson Ranch
