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# Landlord-tenant dispute lands in court
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/landlord-tenant-dispute-lands-in-court/
- Published: 2004-02-26T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T03:52:19.000Z
- Author: John Wood
- Tags: Real Estate & Housing, Venice, #archive-import

*Renters sue over eviction, conditions*

Two area tenants are suing their former landlord for more than $26,000, claiming he illegally charged rent on their illegal apartments for years, then evicted them and sold the property.

Dan Ramirez, a local property owner who specializes in upgrading older buildings, told a judge Wednesday he did everything he could to make the aging units habitable. Ramirez said he evicted his tenants because authorities wouldn’t let him re-zone the building to make the units legal.

“I was working as diligently as possible,” said Ramirez, who owned the five-unit property at 718 Vernon Ave. in Venice for only a few years.

> “I was working as diligently as possible.” — Resident — DAN RAMIREZ Property owner

Tenants told a different story. Juan Martinez, a handyman who for 17 years shared a unit with his wife and children, and Basilia Mejia, a woman in her 80s who for 12 years lived in another unit with her nephews, filed a lawsuit in the fall of 2002 against Ramirez and former property owner Robert Wood.

In it, they claimed the building was uninhabitable and accused both Wood and Ramirez of “unjust and despicable treatment of immigrants and the elderly by wealthy landowners.” Both sets of tenants were evicted in November of 2001\. Martinez paid between $325 and $365 a month for a small, one-room studio. Mejia paid between $650 and $689 a month for a larger, one-bedroom apartment.

According to court papers, the “makeshift” units violated nearly 150 housing codes. Among other things, the papers allege the units had hot plates instead of stoves, water heaters that blocked cabinets and “snaking” extension cords.

Ramirez bought the 1920s property in May of 1999 and said he spent more than $90,000 repairing it. He said he didn’t know the units were illegal when he first bought the building. When he was notified, he did everything he could to bring them up to code, Ramirez testified. But Los Angeles housing authorities said they wouldn’t approve a rezoning of the property, which was built as three units. Ramirez said he was forced to evict the tenants and pay them $5,000 each to relocate.

“These were my tenants, I felt that I should try to protect them,” he said.

Frances Campbell, a lawyer for the tenants, said even if that was the case, Ramirez still broke the law by charging rent for the illegal units. Martinez wants a $7,000 refund and Mejia wants a refund of 17,000 for the rent they paid, as well as $1,000 each for statutory damages. If Ramirez is found liable for elder abuse, he also will have to pay Mejia’s legal fees.

“If you try to do everything you can, but you’re still breaking the law while you’re doing it, you’re not doing everything you can,” Campbell said. She added the plaintiffs agreed late last year to settle the case against Wood for a $7,500 because Wood said he was facing bankruptcy. But the check bounced, Campbell claimed.

Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Lorna Parnell is hearing the case without a jury. She ordered lawyers on both sides Wednesday to issue their closing arguments in writing within one week and said she would then make a ruling.

Ramirez and his attorney declined to speak to a reporter outside the courtroom. Ramirez is countersuing for medical and cleaning expenses because he said Martinez threw a cup of hot coffee in his face after he delivered eviction papers. Martinez, through his lawyer, said the coffee was cold.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 26, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/022604.pdf?ref=smdp.com)