Tenants Battling Landlord Get Letters Saying Rent Is Rising

After making what city officials described as minimally acceptable improvements at a dilapidated Anaheim apartment complex, landlord Sam Menlo sent letters to his tenants this week informing them that their rent will be raised between $50 and $100 a month.

“If it was worth it, we wouldn’t mind paying, but it’s not,” tenant Thannya Machuca said. “It’s too trashy. . . . It’s horrible. He has the money to fix everything. He shouldn’t have apartments if he can’t take care of them.”

Machuca’s rent was raised in October, after her dirty, worn carpet was finally replaced as the result of her numerous complaints. On Tuesday, she received the letter saying her rent for the two-bedroom apartment would rise another $50 in January, to $900 a month.

Menlo’s attorney said the letters were inadvertently sent because of a computer error, but he also would not rule out a rent hike. If the increase takes effect Jan. 1 as the letter states, it would be the second rise in three months for some of the tenants.

The rent-increase letter cites “the losing battle against inflation” and “skyrocketing increases in utilities, public and private services and labor costs.”

Menlo, meanwhile, remains hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, after suffering two apparent strokes since Saturday. Orange County Superior Court Judge Michael Hayes on Thursday stayed Menlo’s 60-day house-arrest sentence at the run-down Ridgewood Gardens apartments.

Another hearing on the matter is scheduled for Dec. 27, at which time Deputy City Atty. Mike Burke said he needs more proof of Menlo’s illness.

“This is not a ploy to get him out of completing his sentence,” said Kevin Mello, Menlo’s attorney. “We’re not pushing for anything at this stage of the game, our number one concern is that Mr. Menlo . . . is healthy.”

But Burke said that, based on conversations with Mello, he expects Menlo, 72, to argue to have the rest of his time dismissed, or be given credit for time spent at the hospital--an idea Burke called “outrageous.”

Thursday’s development was the latest in a string of events that have fired up tenants at the 368-unit complex. Many have lived for years in apartments with rats, cockroaches, moldy and damaged walls, but in the past month they had been cheered by the thought of Menlo spending time among them.

But as they watched new furniture being delivered to Menlo’s refurbished unit shortly before he began living there Oct. 29, that optimism quickly disappeared.

“The landlord’s apartment is beautiful,” said Luis Cabrera, 41, who lives in an apartment where rats have chewed a hole through the kitchen wall. “He’s not really suffering like we suffer.”

Menlo owns millions of dollars in property and lives in an 8,400-square-foot house next to the Wilshire Country Club in Los Angeles’ Hancock Park neighborhood. Tenants said this week that they thought Menlo should be given time to recover, then return to the apartments to serve the rest of his time. If Menlo is released from the hospital, he will be allowed to stay home until the court hearing scheduled for late December.

When Menlo started sending several tenants 30-day eviction notices a few weeks ago, their patience wore thin and they began organizing. They formed a tenants association with help from the Fair Housing Council of Orange County. Some refused to pay rent; others have refused to vacate, forcing Menlo to take them to court.

They fear the evictions are retaliation for their constant complaints, but Mello said the evictions are part of a sweeping rehabilitation plan.

“The ultimate goal is to clear out the entire complex so that the exterior structural repairs can be made in a safe and efficient manner,” Mello said. He met with Fair Housing representatives Thursday to tour the property and show them the extent of needed repairs.

“Because of the time restraints that we’re under and because of the extent of the repairs that need to be done over there, we cannot complete the repairs in the time the court has ordered us with the tenants in possession,” Mello said.

A judge has ordered Menlo to refurbish one building per month.

“It’s ludicrous,” said Joe Caux, Fair Housing’s landlord-tenant division manager. “They emphatically told us, ‘Everyone has to go. We’re doing one building at a time.’ Now they’re saying, ‘Those of you we might let hang around for another 30, 60 days, we want to grab more money from you before we throw you out for the holidays.”

Mello said Menlo’s apartment-management company did not intend to sent out the letter.

No decisions have been made to either raise the rent or leave it unchanged, Mello said, and letters will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.