Lawsuit Alleges the Irvine Co. Misled Tenants About Rental Units
A Tustin lawyer who is appealing the dismissal of a fraud suit against the Irvine Co. has filed a similar lawsuit, alleging that the real estate developer misled people into believing that units it had rented were apartments when, in fact, they were condominiums.
The lawyer, L. Scott Karlin, said Monday that the new lawsuit simply preserves certain rights of 239 individual tenants who, his suit contends, were forced to leave complexes that were built as condos but marketed as apartments.
The latest action was filed Friday in Orange County Superior Court to beat the deadline for cutting off such lawsuits. The first lawsuit, filed as a class action, was dismissed in September, 1992, but is pending on appeal.
The tenants were in four complexes: Santiago Hills in Orange; Mandevilla in Tustin; Villa Point in Corona del Mar; and Big Canyon in Newport Beach.
The Irvine Co. denies that it did anything wrong in changing over the units to condos in 1991, said Larry Thomas, the developer’s chief spokesman.
The Irvine Co. allowed all tenants to remain until their leases expired, offered to sell them units on terms more favorable than those given to the public, offered other rental units and a month’s rent free to those who didn’t buy and provided moving allowances of $500 to $1,000 each.
“That far exceeded the law’s requirements and the industry’s standards,” Thomas said.
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