Order to Vacate Unsafe Brick Buildings Rescinded by L.A.

Showered by criticism from city officials and tenants’ rights groups, the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety Wednesday hastily rescinded orders it mailed this week to owners of 24 brick buildings to vacate their structures for failing to comply with earthquake codes.

The orders were sent by the city’s earthquake renovation director, Al Asakura, in an effort to pressure wayward landlords who have ignored deadlines for strengthening their buildings. But the notices--the first mass mailing involving apartments--spurred fears that landlords would improperly use them to evict hundreds of tenants in order to raise rents or develop the properties.

To ensure that the tenants do not move out because they believe they have no choice, the city’s Rent Stabilization Board said late Wednesday it planned to send city employees door to door to inform them that they cannot be evicted based upon the notices.

Landlords cannot evict tenants en masse if a building is overdue for earthquake work. And landlords must pay relocation fees of $2,000 per individual and $5,000 for the elderly, disabled and families--a cost that the city failed to spell out in the notices.

“I just don’t believe this was done, and now tenants have been knocked off a level playing field,” said Michael Bodakin, a senior attorney at the Los Angeles Legal Aid Foundation. “Landlords are going to use that document against the elderly, the unsophisticated and people with a language barrier.

Barbara Zeidman, director of the city’s Rent Stabilization division, and Councilman Hal Bernson emphasized that the buildings need to be upgraded. “Some of these building owners, the only way you can get them to do anything is to really put their feet to the fire,” Bernson said. “But perhaps hindsight is always 20-20 and if Building and Safety had it to do over again they would have done it another way.”

Asakura, who immediately agreed to rescind the notices after he began receiving complaints, said: “I see that I could have done it in a better way.”

He said that although he notified Rent Stabilization before mailing the notices, “I didn’t touch base with City Council offices or the mayor’s office or even our top management at Building and Safety.”

Asakura said he decided to mail the notices because the city attorney’s office recently ruled that tenants in 44,000 units affected by earthquake codes must be paid relocation costs if the buildings are demolished.

However, Zeidman said the notice did not make it clear enough that landlords who decide to tear down their buildings must pay relocation costs.

Attorneys for the Legal Aid Foundation said they are sending bilingual notices to tenants to head off any possible eviction attempts.

“It’s really a costly, costly mistake and unbelievably bureaucratically inept not to talk to those of us, first, who deal with tenants every day,” Bodakin said.

Zeidman and other city officials said they understood Asakura’s frustration with landlords, who are ignoring city laws and continuing to allow tenants to live in brick buildings that could collapse in a major earthquake.

Some of the landlords who were notified this week own buildings containing office and commercial space. However, most of the buildings, which are sprinkled from Venice to downtown, are aging apartment buildings whose units typically rent for $200 to $300 a month, city officials said.

Mayor Tom Bradley is asking voters to approve a $100-million bond issue in April to help finance the rehabilitation work but city officials concede that far more money will be needed.

In the meantime, nearly 4,000 low-rent units have already been lost to the wrecking ball in an era of mounting rental costs.

Adding to the confusion, Asakura said he understood that some of the landlords who received the notices this week were trying to comply with earthquake codes.

Several landlords reached by The Times said they were surprised to receive the notices because they are taking steps to renovate their buildings.

Dr. Luis Niemas, said his building at 2421 Daly St. contains his medical practice, a flower shop and a one-family apartment. Earthquake work has already begun and it is expected the $23,000 job will be finished in six weeks, Niemas said.

“I was just really shocked to get this letter, and I am calling the city, believe me,” he said.