RENT-CONTROL CHANGE SOUGHT; APARTMENT OWNERS WANT TO MAKE IT EASIER TO EVICT BAD TENANTS.

Byline: Dominic Berbeo Staff Writer

Apartment building owners in the San Fernando Valley have asked the city to change rent-control laws to make it easier to evict troublesome tenants.

The Department of Housing plans to meet with landlord and tenant groups in the next few weeks to discuss the request before making a recommendation to the City Council, officials said Friday.

Under the 1978 Rent Stabilization Ordinance, landlords must prove there is a just cause to evict, including getting witnesses if the tenant is accused of causing a nuisance.

Landlord groups including the Apartment Association of the San Fernando Valley have asked for the removal of the witness clause or a one-year waiver on the ordinance for new renters. They contend most tenants won't testify for fear of retaliation.

``We want to take care of problems at an early stage, and the ordinance is preventing us from doing that,'' said Tony Swan, vice president of the North Hills Community Coordinating Council.

``If we can't evict someone at the early stages, then problems fester and turn more serious, and that leads to the neighborhood deteriorating,'' he said.

Tenant groups say the law was put in place to protect them from being evicted at the whim of landlords, and it should not be changed.

``It's an invitation for abuse,'' said Rod Field, director of the Los Angeles Housing Law Project. ``I've seen too many cases of tenants being evicted for complaining about overdue repairs.''

At the request of City Councilwoman Laura Chick, the Housing Department will prepare a recommendation for the council on whether the law should be changed.

Chick is undecided on changing the law but asked the department for a report after numerous requests from landlord groups, said her spokesman, Gary Bose.

Housing Department General Manager Garry Pinney said in a letter that the Rent Adjustment Commission will consider the issue, but eviction protections are an important part of the rent-control law.

``We are not sure that amending the ordinance to allow evictions for no reason is the solution to this problem,'' he wrote.

Tenants and landlords voiced their opinions at an Oct. 21 meeting, and the city will schedule informal meetings before making a recommendation to the council, said Robinson of the Housing Department.

Los Angeles is the only city in California with a law requiring every nuisance eviction notice to state, in writing, the date, place, circumstances and names of witnesses concerning the reported nuisance, as grounds for eviction.

About 460,000 rental units, or 61 percent of all units in the city, are affected by the law, according to the Housing Department.

Neal Dudovitz, the director of San Fernando Legal Services, said weakening rent control would allow landlords to evict tenants for requesting repairs.

``Usually older buildings are the ones that are in need of repairs and many times landlords don't want to make those repairs,'' he said.

Juan Carlos Leon, who lives with his wife in a Sherman Oaks building with their two children, said the rent-control law provides them protection against landlords who act arbitrarily.

He recalled asking his landlord three years ago to change an old carpet. The landlord replaced it with a used carpet full of dog hair, which worsened their son's asthma. Only after Leon threatened to go to court under rent-control protections was a new carpet put in, he said.

``If they change the law, we won't have rights,'' he said. ``We won't be able to complain about anything.''

But some Los Angeles landlords, including Guy Stadig, said the law interferes with their ability to keep their properties free of crime. It is impossible to find tenant witnesses to testify against neighbors, especially in cases dealing with drugs or gangs, he said.

``People have a fear of going before their neighbors in court,'' he said. ``I have a case going on right now in Hollywood,'' he said. ``A tenant in her 20s with an alcohol problem gets drunk and plays the music loud at all hours, pounding on the walls and the floor.''

Out of dozens of tenants who have complained, he said, only one is willing to act as a witness, which he said may not hold up in court if the problem tenant persuades others to testify on her behalf.

Dan Faller, president of the Southern California Apartment Owners Association, said he blames neighborhood decline in part on rent-control laws.

``Rent control is a political thing,'' he said. ``There are a lot more renters than landlords. The City Council is buying their votes with our money.''

Others agree.

Gordon Murley, president of the San Fernando Valley Federation, a coalition of 20 homeowner groups in the Valley, said he believes stringent eviction rules also affect good tenants.

``Decent people have no rights,'' he said. ``Tenants are afraid of retaliation, and many times landlords are caught looking down the barrel of a gun.''

Tenant advocates dispute the landlords' claims, saying a new state law allows the City Attorney's Office to evict tenants who are involved in drug or gang activity.

City Attorney James Hahn last week said the program has successfully expelled about 200 nuisance tenants in its first six months of operation.

Debra Levy, a single mother with three children in Sherman Oaks, said her landlord recently tried to evict her after she complained of discriminatory treatment by the manager. She got a lawyer and won a settlement out of court.

``They tried to say we were a nuisance, but they had no proof because it wasn't true,'' she said. ``If it weren't for rent control, they would have just evicted us.''