RENTERS’ REVENGE, from page 1 Landlord told to steer clear of tenants
SM COURTHOUSE — A judge has fined a local landlord nearly $50,000 for harassing his tenants and has barred him from having any direct contact with the seven renters who testified against him at trial.
Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Patricia Collins this week ordered Isaac Gabriel, who is in his 70s, to pay $47,500 in fines and stay at least 30 feet away from seven tenants who rent units at his two apartment buildings.
In an unprecedented move, the consumer protection unit within the City Attorney’s Office sued Gabriel in 2004 under California’s unfair competition law, which prohibits illegal and fraudulent business practices. Prosecutors said they called upon the law because it allows for stiff penalties and a permanent injunction, which explicitly bans the illegal behavior.
The case marks the first time that City Hall has used the unfair competition law against the landlord of a rent-controlled building.
“We will use the unfair competition law in only the most egregious cases of landlord-tenant violations,” said Deputy City Attorney Adam Radinsky. “It allows for stronger injunctions and higher penalties against owners who commit illegal acts against their tenants.”
The lawsuit accused Gabriel of charging too much in rent, illegally entering apartments, using bodily force against a tenant, stealing a renter’s satellite TV dish, attempted fraud, and illegally taking away a tenant’s laundry facilities and cable TV.
Following a three-day trial held earlier this year, Judge Collins issued a tentative decision on Feb. 2 and this week the judgment became official. The court ruled that Gabriel committed a total of 17 illegal acts against tenants at his Santa Monica apartment buildings. Those acts included: • Stealing a TV satellite dish from the roof of a senior citizen tenant’s apartment. • Assaulting a tenant in his kitchen and robbing the tenant of his camera. • Invading the privacy of a tenant by vandalizing her property while she was away. • Illegally taking away laundry and cable TV services from tenants. • Repeatedly serving tenants with fraudulent notices. • Illegally entering tenants’ apartments. The court imposed on Gabriel the maximum fines allowed by law for 17 violations, in part due to the chronic and serious nature of the violations and the long period of time over which they occurred, Radinsky said. Each illegal act carries a penalty of up to $2,500, or $5,000 for acts involving a senior citizen, which was the case in one incident.
As a result, Gabriel must pay the fines and penalties, half of which go to Santa Monica’s consumer protection fund and the other half to Los Angeles County.
Radinsky said he decided to pursue Gabriel using the unfair business law because it can be used to address violations of any other state or local laws, like robbery and battery, which isn’t covered under the city’s tenant harassment ordinance.
Gabriel, who owns a four-unit apartment building at 1007 16th St. and a 10-unit complex at 1035 Fifth St., declined to comment. However, he has told the Daily Press in the past that he is innocent of the charges and accused prosecutors of waging a relentless campaign against him.
Of the 13 rentable units Gabriel owns, all one-bedrooms, three of them are at market rate, ranging from $1,618 to $1,977 a month. The remainder range from $364 a month to $949.
Both buildings were bought in the summer of 1995, months before vacancy decontrol went into effect. Before vacancy decontrol, rent control kept rates low even for new tenants. Gabriel estimates his buildings are worth between $4 million and $5 million together, but said he does-n’t profit from them and is actually losing money because of rent control.
The court-ordered judgment also prohibits Gabriel from entering any of the seven tenants’apartments, or preventing those tenants from having laundry or cable TV services. He also can’t evict a tenant who repairs the unit or deducts the cost from rent if Gabriel ignores the repair requests.
Gabriel also must pay the city’s attorneys’fees and court costs. Radinsky would-n’t say how much those costs might be.
Gabriel’s legal problems with City Hall go back many years. In 1998, he was convicted of illegally locking out a Santa Monica tenant and taking the tenant’s personal property, both criminal misdemeanors. He was sentenced to 30 days’ house arrest and ordered to perform 480 hours of community service.
In 1999, the City Attorney’s Office filed new charges against Gabriel for harassment of a second tenant. The case was settled after a judge ordered Gabriel to perform repairs in the tenant’s apartment, forbade him from having further contact with her, and added one year to his probation from the first case.
Gabriel sued City Hall in 2005, but the case was thrown out of court.
In the past several years, the City Attorney’s Office had received formal complaints from half a dozen additional tenants claiming a variety of misconduct by Gabriel, which led to the filing of the lawsuit.
The tenants, all of whom live in below-market rate apartments, still live on the properties owned by Gabriel. It will be a challenge for Gabriel, who lives at the 16th Street building, to stay at least 30 feet away from the tenants who sued him.
“The tenants at both properties have always been afraid of retaliation and were victims of retaliation,” Radinsky said. “Despite that fear, they came forward and testified.
“They have gone through a lot.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 10, 2006. Read the original PDF.