Illegal Landlords Ordered to Pay Moving Costs : Rentals: Council action aims to protect tenants while ridding the city of garage apartments.

A crackdown on hundreds of garage apartments in Whittier will force landlords to pay tenants’ moving costs and rent increases for up to a year.

The City Council this week approved a plan to rid the city of the illegal apartments without throwing the tenants into the streets.

A special prosecutor will be appointed to take legal action against owners of illegal apartments. The city will increase building code enforcement and levy a license fee on apartment owners to cover costs.

The crackdown is aimed at garages that have been illegally converted into apartment units. There are hundreds of illegal units, city officials estimate.

Many of the converted garages, built without city approval, have illegal wiring, little or no plumbing, inadequate heating and no parking. Officials said the apartments clog neighborhoods, strain city services and lower property values.

“It is also a health and safety risk to tenants that are in these hovels,” Councilman Bob Henderson said at Tuesday’s meeting. “It’s something we need to stamp out immediately before it starts destroying more neighborhoods.”

In many cases the garages are occupied by families of illegal immigrants who pay as much as tenants of legal apartments, officials said. A typical two-bedroom apartment in Whittier costs about $650.

The city will, if necessary, pay the security deposit and other moving and storage expenses for evicted families, then sue the landlords for reimbursement. The landlords would have to pay any rent increases for families for up to a year.

The plan is the product of a six-member advisory committee, formed in September, that included representatives of a historic preservation group, the local board of realtors, the chamber of commerce, as well as an affordable housing activist and two City Council members.

Only activist Jim Stratton expressed reservations. “If it had been up to me, we would not have done this at all,” said Stratton, who is a housing specialist for Catholic Charities. “There are not enough places for people to live. That’s the problem.”

Stratton said there could be well over 1,000 such converted garages in Whittier. He said it is not uncommon for eight people or more than one family to share a garage. Thousands of people could be displaced, he said.

“One of the keys to the thing was to try to make the landlords pay,” Stratton said. “The people who have been receiving income illegally for so long should have to shoulder the burden, not the taxpayers.

“There are garages that don’t have electricity, that don’t have plumbing. I hope those landlords end up having to pay.”

An ordinance establishing what landlords must pay is still being drafted and will come before the council in about a month, Assistant City Manager Hank Cunningham said.

“We don’t anticipate any displacements before that time. If so, we’ll deal with it on an individual case basis to make sure no one gets hurt.”

Inspectors who see a converted garage may issue a citation. If necessary, they can obtain a court order to inspect the property.

Because every house in Whittier must have a garage, the law can also be applied to families that have converted garages into dens or extra bedrooms.

The city can ultimately file a criminal complaint against property owners who do not restore garages to their original function within a reasonable length of time. In the most extreme cases, a homeowner could be fined or imprisoned.

The city could have used this process in the past. The difference is that city officials said they will work more closely with local judges in order to obtain inspection powers in one day.

The city will also hire an additional inspector to concentrate primarily on garage conversions. A special prosecutor will be hired to move cases more quickly through the court system.

The program will cost $129,000 a year and be financed with a $50 fee levied against property owners who own three apartments or less. In the past, such small-scale landlords did not have to pay a license fee.

A loophole in the plan might enable landlords to avoid paying relocation costs if they kick tenants out of illegal apartments before the city cites the property.

The city has been working on a plan to deal with converted garages for about a year. The Whittier Conservancy, a historic preservation group, focused attention on the problem by submitting a list of alleged illegal garage conversions to city officials.

Conservancy members and other activists have long complained about the deterioration of Whittier neighborhoods. As a result, the council has reduced the number of new apartment units and homes that can be built on city parcels. Developers have complained that the measures have stifled city growth.

The business community has supported the strategy to eliminate garage conversions. However, the support came after real estate agents successfully lobbied against an earlier proposal that would have required inspections of every rental unit.

The Whittier District Board of Realtors called the inspection plan costly, burdensome and an invasion of privacy. The earlier plan was based on similar programs in such cities as Santa Fe Springs and Azusa.

“At first, we were going to do an inspection program of some type,” the city’s Cunningham said. “The realtors objected to that, so that’s when the council decided to form a task force to see if we could work out a compromise.”

Activist Stratton said he remains concerned about families who may lose their homes, but he hopes that the Whittier plan will offer them some protection.

“One of last priorities of any municipality is to close down places where people are living. The whole thing is ludicrous,” Stratton said “But there was no way to stop it. The idea is to implement (the plan) as humanely as possible.”