Renter challenges law that seeks out part-timers
Does Robert Bisno live in Santa Monica or Beverly Hills? Or both?
The answer is worth $3,831 each month.
Bisno, 51, is suing the city’s Rent Control Board for “class discrimination.” He argues that a new rent control law that allows landlords to jack up the rent on part-time tenants who don’t really live in Santa Monica is illegal.
Bisno is an attorney and prominent local real estate investor who, according to city documents, lives in an exclusive enclave of Beverly Hills as well as in a rent-controlled oceanfront place in Santa Monica.
Bisno claims the Santa Monica law is illegal because it was never put before voters. He also argues it goes against the charter that governs rent control.
“By carving out a class of persons defined by their use of the units, the Santa Monica Rent Control Board is creating a governmentally created discrimination of class,” the lawsuit says.
Since 1996, Santa Monica rent control officials maintain that Bisno has kept a rent controlled two-bedroom, two-bathroom penthouse apartment in the Santa Monica Shores buildings on the beach near Ocean Park Boulevard.
Though his rent is set at $1,064 under rent control, comparable apartments in the Shores command $4,895 on the open market. The difference — $3,831 monthly — is what the Shores stands to gain and Bisno stands to lose.
The new law, passed in March in Santa Monica, allows landlords to raise the rent to market value on units that are used as second homes, offices or for storage.
The rationale was that rent control is intended to protect full-time residents by stabilizing their living expenses, but wasn’t intended to subsidize the lifestyles of part-timers who don’t need the protection. Some opponents, however, worry that the supply of affordable units under rent control will dry up if rents continue to be taken to market levels.
Douglas Emmett & Co., the company that owns the Shores, challenged Bisno’s residency under the new law in a formal complaint to the rental board earlier this year. On May 28, Bisno and his attorney, Andrew Zanger, sat through a six-hour hearing with the board and Douglas Emmett officials.
Bisno claimed that his wife Janette, who he has been in divorce proceedings with for the past 18 months, currently resides in the apartment.
But Shores officials say it’s being used as a second residence. They maintain that the property has been mostly vacant since Bisno rented it in 1996.
“We looked at it as a very straightforward case,” said Allan Golad, the director of property management for Douglas Emmett. “It was very clear to us that (the Bisnos) were not living there.”
Bisno presented the hearing officer with pieces of mail addressed to Janette Bisno at the Shores, a copy of her registration for art courses at Santa Monica College this summer and pictures that show the apartment has been used by her and their 10-year-old child.
While Bisno waits on the hearing officer’s ruling to be handed down, Zanger said the lawsuit will be scheduled for a preliminary hearing in the Santa Monica Courthouse.
Doris Ganga, the attorney for the Rent Control Board, wouldn’t comment on the lawsuit. She said she hasn’t yet been formally served with documents.
While the legal wrangling goes forward, an increasing number of tenants are being served by landlords who are challenging their residency under the new law in order to lift the protection afforded to tenants by rent controlled rates.
Seventy-one cases have been filed with the rental board since the law went into effect March 15. Of those, five tenants have conceded that they are not full-time tenants and accepted the rent hikes. Fifteen cases have been dismissed because the landlord failed to adequately build a case against the tenant and 10 hearings have been held.
Though no rulings have been made, the decisions will begin coming down very soon, said Tracy Condon, the Rent Control Board spokeswoman.
In the meantime, Bisno also is embroiled in an ongoing battle over Lincoln Place, a low and middle-income property that he plans to redevelop into townhouses and apartments.
Lincoln Place sits between Lake Street and Palms Boulevard in Venice. Residents and tenants have long fought to have the property, which was built shortly after World War II, recognized as an historical landmark.
Allan Golad
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 18, 2003. Read the original PDF.