The Santa Monica City Attorney’s Office sent the following press release this afternoon:

The Santa Monica City Attorney’s Consumer Protection Division has filed a lawsuit against two local landlords, alleging violations of a local law that protects tenants against harassment.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Santa Monica Superior Court, names as defendants landlords Ante Trinidad and the Adel Luzuriaga Trust doing business as SanMo17 Property. It alleges that the defendants bought a nine-unit Santa Monica apartment building in July 2016 and immediately targeted three long-term, below-market-rent tenants with harassment tactics in a manner designed to make the tenants vacate so that the landlords could obtain higher rents from new tenants.

The lawsuit alleges that the landlords’ misconduct included:

Using fraudulent and coercive tactics to force tenants’ existing roommates to vacate

Improperly refusing to allow the tenants to get other roommates, and

Conducting bogus and intrusive “inspections” of tenants’ units

Read More: http://smdp.com/city-attorney-files-lawsuit-to-stop-harassment-of-local-tenants/161719