Landlord Ordered to Jail for 45 Days

Code enforcement officials were celebrating Friday after putting a convicted landlord in jail for perhaps the first time in city history.

Amrit Bhandari, 53, was sentenced by Municipal Judge Richard E. Behn on Thursday to immediately serve 45 days in Orange County Jail, pay city costs of $2,000 and repair his apartment buildings at 619 N. Pauline St. and 184 W. Guinida Lane by June 30.

Bhandari was convicted of four misdemeanor counts of failing to properly maintain the properties.

The city dropped 47 other misdemeanor counts against him, including charges involving hazardous electrical wiring, buckled walls and faulty floors.

Code Enforcement Supervisor Bruce Freeman said Bhandari is notorious for failing to maintain his 10 apartment complexes in the city and has been taken to court in Fullerton several times but had escaped with only small fines until Thursday.

“The judge said, ‘You’ve been before me four or five times for substandard buildings, so I’m sentencing you to 15 days on one property and 30 days on the other commencing right now’ and told the bailiff to lead him out,” Freeman said. “When the bailiff slapped the cuffs on, the color left Bhandari’s face and his knees buckled.”

Attempts to reach Lloyd L. Freeberg Jr., Bhandari’s attorney, failed Friday.

Freeman said Bhandari often promises to make repairs to his properties for such code violations as electrical hazards, cockroach infestations and crumbling stairways but usually doesn’t.

When he does make repairs, they are slipshod, Freeman said.

“Once, we cited him for having a hole in a garage roof,” Freeman said. “The roof damage had allowed water to seep into the framing, causing rot. He patched the roof, but he didn’t fix the framing. He tries to get away with doing as little as he can.”

He said Bhandari was once told that an apartment unit’s utilities would not be turned on until Bhandari fixed the property.

But Bhandari moved in his new tenants anyway, which is illegal, Freeman said.

“So he ran wires from an outside light standard into the apartment so the refrigerator and the TV would work,” Freeman said.