CALABASAS : No Evidence Found in Gouging Case

The city of Calabasas has found no evidence to support allegations that the landlord of an apartment complex has been gouging tenants to take advantage of a housing shortage created by the Northridge earthquake, city officials said.

A study of the area’s rental market found that rents charged at Lincoln Malibu Meadows are on a par with rents charged elsewhere, said Calabasas City Atty. Casey Vose. Recent rent increases at the complex have amounted to about 4.4%, about average for the area, he said.

The study also showed that vacancy rates at the 600-unit complex have not increased significantly since the earthquake, Vose said.

Some tenants have said that the landlord has been renting out units to people left homeless by the quake and then raising their rents to exorbitant levels. The current occupancy rate, about 93%, contradicts that claim, Vose said.

His comments came Wednesday after a meeting between city officials and Scott Morrison, regional property manager for the landlord, Lincoln Property Co. Morrison could not be reached for comment.

Vose said Morrison offered to guarantee tenants who sign leases within the next six months that any rent increases would not exceed 4.5%. Also, the landlord is “taking care of” tenants’ claims that the complex is poorly maintained, Vose said.

Calabasas Mayor Karyn Foley, who was also at the meeting, said she believes there is no need to implement rent control for the city, as some have urged.

“Because of the spirit of cooperation, we will not be addressing rent control at this time,” she said.

Tenants at Lincoln Malibu Meadows, off Las Virgenes Road near the Ventura Freeway, complained to the council after receiving rent increases that they say exceed fair market value.

One of those tenants, Vivian Foster, said Thursday that she was not satisfied with the city’s findings and that she plans to move out as planned. Foster, a long-time tenant at Lincoln Malibu Meadows, said she recently received a notice saying the rent for her two-bedroom apartment was to be raised from $1,110 to $1,177 a month.

The notice, she said, offered another option: she could begin renting on a month-to-month basis at $1,330 a month.

Anthony Pecoraro, another tenant at the complex, said he was disappointed that the City Council refuses to implement rent control. But he called the landlord’s promise to limit future rent increases to 4.5% “a start” toward “self-imposed rent control.”