Why Marines Took Elerding Off Approved Housing List

Shortly after Schene and Victoria Groom got married in December, 1988, they moved to Orange County from New Jersey so Schene could report for duty at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

Their new home, a one-bedroom unit in the Mountain View Apartments, had been reserved by Victoria--sight unseen--because the complex stood 10 minutes from the base and was approved by the Marine Corps.

When the newlyweds entered Apartment 818 for the first time, however, they discovered that the rugs were stained with paint and scarred by cigarettes, the curtains were mildewed and the rotting remains of someone’s lunch had been tossed in the bathtub.

Eight months later, plagued by what they described in a recent interview as persistent problems with the apartment’s maintenance, the Grooms moved out and sought a refund of their $305 security deposit.

After getting no response from several letters and making more than 25 telephone calls to apartment owners Elerding Properties of Garden Grove, they turned to the Marine legal assistance center. By then, the center had tried in vain to recover deposits for at least four other Marines.

The Grooms proved to be the last straw--Marine officials removed Elerding Properties’ 10 Orange County and two Los Angeles County complexes from the service’s approved housing list.

Like more than 100 other Orange County renters, the Grooms subsequently filed a suit in small-claims court against Elerding Properties to recover their security deposit. Earlier this year, they won a judgment but have yet to collect.

The deposit would represent a substantial part of his monthly paycheck, said Groom, a corporal who earns roughly $10,000 a year.

“Boy, I could use that money to do a whole lot of things,” he said.

Officials with Elerding Properties have repeatedly declined to comment to The Times.

Former Mountain View renter Robert Dobbins, 23, has already sued Elerding once to recover a security deposit. Now he said he is on the verge of doing it again.

Until his roommate got married last year, Dobbins shared a two-bedroom apartment in the complex. But then he moved to a one-bedroom unit. He said he paid a $300 deposit for the new apartment and waited for a refund of the $505 deposit he and his former roommate had paid.

When the money never came, Dobbins and his roommate sued Elerding, eventually winning a default judgment and filing a levy against one of the firm’s bank accounts.

Dobbins has since moved out of Mountain View and lives in Rancho Cordova, a suburb of Sacramento, where he works as an engineer. And he is considering filing suit to recover his second deposit.

“I would have to drive all the way and take (time) off work,” Dobbins said recently. “I’m not sure if it’s worth the $300. But . . . these people don’t deserve my money.”

Many former renters never take their deposit complaints to court because they have moved away, do not realize that they can file an action or do not have the time to pursue litigation.

For example, Cheryl Armstrong, 30, has been writing Elerding since she moved out of the Bahia Puerto Apartments in Huntington Beach about a year ago. Armstrong, a sales assistant with a real estate company in Los Angeles, said she cannot afford to miss work to file a court action.

“My (working) hours are the hours the courts are open,” Armstrong said. “I am at their (Elerding’s) mercy. They can use the courts and make it real sticky for me.”

Pete L. Perrin, a Newport Beach police officer and another former resident of Mountain View, has been calling the landlords and writing them letters since October in pursuit of his $350 refundable security deposit.

“I feel like I was shoveling sand against the tide,” he said about his efforts to recover his money. “No one in the company wanted to help. Everyone I talked to was turning a deaf ear toward me.”

But the officer said he just has not found time to go to court.

“Basically, I’m really busy,” Perrin said. “I kept hoping that my letters would finally reach a person who would return my little deposit. It amazes me that now I have to sue” to get the deposit back.