Tenants of Sea Castle Units Could Be Left Out in the Cold : Housing: Landlord is seeking to exempt the quake-damaged oceanfront landmark from rent control. Residents, whose apartments are still uninhabitable, could be priced out of their homes.

Tenants of Santa Monica’s landmark Sea Castle apartments, who have not been able to go home since the Jan. 17 earthquake, were notified by the city last week that their landlord is seeking to remove the building from rent control.

If he succeeds, they may not have a home at all.

Sea Castle owner Robert Braun signaled his plans for the 178-unit oceanfront building by asking the rent board to relieve him of rent control restrictions.

That does not, as some tenants fear, mean he can automatically demolish the building.

But it does mean that some of the apartment dwellers may ultimately be forced out by market-dictated rents on ocean-view units. Pre-earthquake rents were in the $350-$650 range.

Braun’s application is based on a claim that reconstruction costs for the condemned structure could not be recouped by the rents he would collect. If the argument is valid, the permit would be granted under the city’s post-earthquake recovery program.

Rent Board General Counsel Anthony Trendacosta said Braun filed two estimates that placed rebuilding costs at between $5 million and $8 million. The board has hired its own expert to assess the situation, Trendacosta said.

A public hearing and decision on the permit is expected sometime in August. Though Braun filed his petition late last month, the news became public last week as Sea Castle residents, still living elsewhere since the quake, received written notice of their landlord’s intention.

It could not have been worse news for the already frazzled residents, who more than five months after the quake have not been allowed back into the building to recover their belongings.

There is also a history of bad blood between Braun and the tenants. They accuse him of being a slumlord and had regularly brought actions against him before the rent board because they said the building was often in disrepair.

In their biggest landlord-tenant battle, Braun was ultimately ordered to install sprinklers in the building, after several years of delays and lawsuits. Earlier, Braun had sent eviction notices to all the tenants.

Ill will was apparent on either side when the earthquake hit. Tenants immediately sought the city’s help in dealing with Braun and many of them are bitter at the lack of results.

“The major outrage is that we asked the city not to let Robert Braun delay the process of getting us back in the building,” said tenant Don Masterson. “He’s harassed us for years. (The city) has never really defended the tenants to the extent they should have.”

Braun could not be reached for comment.

To add to the residents’ frustration, there have been widespread reports of looting in the units, which have been guarded by a private security firm paid for by the city since about a week after the quake.

Initially, city officials downplayed such reports, saying they could not be verified, but later police officers found some signs of forced entry and security was doubled in mid-May. It is impossible to determine the extent of the thievery because some tenants removed their belongings before the city declared the building off-limits, officials said.

Masterson is one tenant who can prove he has been a victim of burglary recently. Two credit cards left in his unit were used by someone else in May, Braun said, and a phone call to Indianapolis was made from his apartment.

City officials say they have done everything in their power to assist residents, but have been stymied because by law, securing residents’ property is the owner’s responsibility.

“The tenants are wanting the city to take on much more responsibility than the city should be taking,” said Planning Director Suzanne Frick. “They want us to resolve a conflict between (them) and the property owner.”

Frick said city officials have declared the building a nuisance and have been in negotiations with Braun to do the work. But Braun has disagreed with the city’s cost estimates to shore up the building and said he could not afford the project in any event.

Frick said the city is prepared to stabilize the building and board it up at a cost of $180,000, a bill that will be passed along to Braun, though he has insisted on retaining the right to dispute the cost. The work could start within 10 days, based on a verbal agreement with Braun that must first be put down in writing, Frick said. The shoring of the building tower, which now has a gaping hole, could take a month, she said.

If Braun’s request to get out from under rent control is granted, he has two options. “It could lead to demolition,” Frick said. Braun’s attorney, Sherman Stacey, said no decision has been made on whether to demolish the building.

But a potentially more attractive option for the owner is to rehabilitate the building with 75% market-rent units and the rest affordable units to low-and moderate-income people, as the city requires.

As Frick pointed out, the city’s earthquake recovery rules offer an inducement for Braun and others to rehab their buildings by allowing them to be returned to their pre-earthquake size and density. If he sought to demolish the building, his options would be severely limited. Current zoning would allow only a two-story structure, instead of the current eight. “We have him thinking about restoring the building,” Frick said.

Tenants charge that Braun is playing a delaying game as he considers his options, hoping they will give up and find a permanent home elsewhere. They say they will fight the effort to remove the units from rent control, arguing that the rent board should take Braun’s history as a landlord into account in weighing his request.

Among tenants, there is no shortage of anger toward Braun. Said Sea Castle Tenants Assn. board member Nan Faessler: “We don’t want them to grant it because he’s been such a jerk,” she said.

While that assessment may be widely held among rent control advocates, it may not hold much sway in the end. Said rent board attorney Trendacosta: “Braun’s goodness and badness, while important and an issue, is not the determinant factor in obtaining a removal permit.”