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# Tenants contest ruling
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/tenants-contest-ruling/
- Published: 2005-08-10T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T07:34:15.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Real Estate & Housing, Santa Monica, #archive-import

any action by the commission that they will get to stay, when it’s not connected at all.

“The buildings may stay longer, but not the tenants.” AIMCO said it offered tenants a “generous” relocation package, which has played a large part in the site’s declining occupancy. Some tenants moved to Hawaii, others took the money to buy houses, Schwayder said. Last spring, AIMCO offered to provide remaining tenants rent-controlled apartments within its new development plans. Tenants refused the proposal, and the offer was taken off the table in March.

After a court ruling, AIMCO began serving eviction notices on July 18 to residents who continued to stay. This move, however, is being challenged in court by the tenants.

Lincoln Place residents Frieda Marlin, 81, and her son, Spike, 53, filed for declaratory relief in Los Angeles Superior Court last month. They are asking for clarification as to how AIMCO can use the Ellis Act to evict them.

The Ellis Act, passed by the California legislature in 1986, was designed as a way for landlords to sell their property in order to get out of the rental business. Legal advocates for the tenants contend AIMCO — a corporate landlord that owns 50 apartment complexes in California — is not going out of the rental business. Therefore, they argue, AIMCO is forfeit from exercising the Ellis Act.

Tenants say there is an injunction in place to prevent their eviction until the court makes a decision. AIMCO says there is no injunction in place and a counter-suit by tenants to clarify their rights will not be upheld in court, citing that the law’s parameters already have been largely defined.

According to AIMCO, seniors and the disabled have until March to relocate, while other tenants have 120 days from the time they were served with eviction notices. AIMCO is not accepting rent from any of them.

“They’re squatters,” Schwayder said. “It’s a serious situation.

“We are now suing them one by one to regain custody of the property.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 10, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/081005.pdf?ref=smdp.com)