Judge lowers landlord’s fines
Boo Soon Park knows firsthand how persistent the city can be about collecting its annual rent control fees from Santa Monica landlords.
The city currently has a $5,000 lien on her Arizona Street duplex and won a judgment in Santa Monica Small Claims Court last week for another $1,000. Park refused to pay the annual $264 fee for the board to regulate her one rent-controlled unit.
The fees are collected on the roughly 2,500 rent controlled properties throughout the city. The revenue collected from the fees is used to fund the rent control board, which sets rules and regulations on rent-controlled units. It also mediates rent control disputes between landlords and tenants.
When landlords don’t pay the annual fee, the amount increases by 4 percent every month they are delinquent. While most landlords pay on time, the few who don’t rack up penalties quickly.
Judge Pro Tem Michael Graham awarded the city $792 owed by Park for rent control registration, but lowered the fines to $120.
“I’m sure the city won’t be happy with me for doing this,” he said, “but the fines seem a little excessive.”
Until four years ago, Park was exempted from the fee because she lived on the same premises as her rent-controlled unit. But in 1996, the board learned that Park was living in a different location but she was still filing for the exemption, officials said.
“Mrs. Park’s credibility does come into play,” said Marti Padilla, a rent control board information coordina-tor who appeared in small claims court last week.
Park said she has never been given a chance to counter the board’s claims because she was not properly notified. She said she didn’t know about a rent control board hearing and therefore couldn’t appear in her defense.
“It’s not fair,” Park said. “Nobody will listen to me. Nobody will listen to the truth.”
Rent control board officials deny Park’s claim. In recent years, the rent control board has been collecting lapsed fees before landlords begin piling up huge fines. The last large judgment the board received against a delinquent landlord was more than four years ago.
“People are supposed to pay registration fees at the beginning of August,” said Doris Ganga, an attorney who represents the rent control board. “If they don’t, we like to get them quick before penalties mount up.”
In Park’s case, the annual fee had not been paid for three years, totaling $780. But the fines amounted to nearly $1,600 — more than double what she would have otherwise paid.
City officials say the penalties are necessary and not excessive.
“It’s used to try to get people to pay fees in a timely manner... The fact that we are going to small claims rather than anywhere else indicates they aren’t (excessive),” Ganga said. “If it was worth a lot of money, we couldn’t take care of it in small claims.”
The maximum allowable amount that can be collected in small claims court is $5,000.
Collecting fees in small claims court has been successful for the rent control board because it’s less expensive — mostly because lawyers can’t get involved, officials said.
Currently there are only two outstanding balances owed to the board — Park’s matter and a landlord who hasn’t paid photocopying fees for a transcript, a rent control board official said.
“There’s not much they can do with their property to avoid paying it,” Ganga said. “We’ll get our money eventually.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 20, 2002. Read the original PDF.