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T he C oast News
APRIL 8, 2022
Leucadia tenants speak out against ‘renoviction’ practice By Stephen Wyer
ENCINITAS — An increasing number of longtime Leucadia residents are being priced out of their apartments through a controversial but legal practice that allows property owners to remove tenants under the auspices of remodeling their units. “Renoviction” (a portmanteau of the words “renovation” and “eviction”) is not a new phenomenon nor is it unique to Encinitas. However, residents, city officials and local housing attorneys all agree the practice has been on the rise in recent months. Mike Mager and his wife were model tenants at their two-bedroom unit on Phoebe Street. The couple said they never paid rent late, kept the unit in good order, and followed the terms of their lease. But Mager said that didn’t seem to matter when the landlords decided to remodel their unit. “After eight years of paying rent on time with no issues, I come back from work one day to find a notice taped on my door saying you have 60 days to move,” Mager said. “I mean, unless you’re made of money, it’s not the easiest to find a new place in 60 days. No explanation, nothing. Just we’re kicking you out, we’re redoing the unit, and we’re jacking up the price. It definitely leaves a sour taste in your mouth.” Some Encinitas residents view renovictions as little more than an excuse for property owners to kick out tenants while adding little to the units in the way of actual improvements. Patrick Reid, another former Pacific Villas resident, got his 60-day letter in October almost immediately after the statewide moratorium on evictions had expired. After being forced out, Reid learned the “remodel” of his unit entailed a few relatively minor alterations, despite a significant increase in the rental price. His family was forced to find another place altogether. “We asked them are you going to fix the plumbing, the electrical wires in the wall, etc,” Reid said. “But they said, ‘No, we’re just throwing up some paint and laminating the floors.’ To them, that was a major remodel I guess.” Ari Marsh, a 33-year resident of Leucadia, recalled that just weeks after the statewide eviction moratorium ended, numerous residents at the Pacific Villas apartment complex, including himself, started to receive notices to vacate due to planned remodeling. As Marsh and his neighbors moved out, they learned their former units were back on the market, only 50% more expensive than before. “I got my letter to move out the week after Thanksgiving, I mean right in the middle of the
TENANTS AT Pacific Villas in Leucadia were asked to vacate their apartments for “substantial” renovations, only to learn their rent had increased by 50%. Photo by Anna Opalsky
holidays,” said Marsh. “With historically low vacancies in Encinitas, it’s pretty much impossible to find a new place to live at that point. They jacked up the price and said, ‘Well, if you want to stay now you have to completely move out and reapply, and then I wasn’t even approved to move back in.” One of Marsh’s neighbors, a tenant who spoke with The Coast News on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal, got their letter to vacate just before Marsh, with a move-out date of Dec. 26, the day after Christmas. Being forced to completely move out, and find a temporary place to live before reapplying to his own unit (rent was now 30% higher) was a stressful experience for the Leucadia retiree. In response to the notices to vacate, Marsh, along with approximately 15 to 20 other tenants at Pacific Villas, wrote a letter to the owners of the apartment complex, entreating them to reconsider their decision. “Please don’t forcibly evict us to remodel the apartments, we love living here and want to stay,” the letter reads. “We are all neighbors who have been loyally paying our rent for many years and love to call Pacific Villas our home.” Pacific Villas owners and property managers declined to comment for this story, but according to Marsh, the letter did not alter their decision.
What's the law?
In Sept. 2021, a statewide eviction moratorium, in place since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in California, expired. Subsequently, residents countywide have experienced a rise in no-fault evictions from landlords seeking to take advantage of rapidly rising property values, according to Gilberto Vera, an attorney with Legal Aid Society of San Diego, a nonprofit law firm specializing in tenant advocacy. A “renoviction” is a particular kind of no-fault eviction that is carried out in order to repair or renovate a housing unit. Under state law, renovictions are
legal as long as the apartment landlord is making a “substantial” remodel that necessitates a vacating of the premises on the tenant’s part (tenants are typically served with a 60day notice to vacate to allow for the renovations). However, Vera and others say the practice is commonly exploited by property owners who will often significantly increase rents after asking tenants to move out, while only making slight alterations to the unit itself. Residents then are not only forced to move out but have to choose between finding another place altogether or signing a new lease on their former unit with substantially higher rents. In Encinitas, renovictions have been on the rise significantly since the state moratorium expired in October, local real es-
tate and tenant attorneys told The Coast News. “It’s not anything new, but it’s become a growing issue,” Vera said. “About 23% of the people calling into the Legal Aid Society are dealing with a no-fault eviction stemming from a remodel. It’s the number one issue people are calling about.” In California, the law is clear that in order to evict a tenant for renovation reasons, the landlord must conduct a “substantial” remodel of the unit. However, what qualifies as “substantial” is a legal gray area, according to Louis Galuppo, an attorney
with Carlsbad’s G10 Law. “When it comes to what’s ‘substantial,’ this is really a brand new field of law that needs to be tested in the courts,” Galuppo said. “(The term) ‘substantial’ in this particular statute has not been addressed in a manner where I could tell you where the lines are.” Vera agreed, noting this gaping ambiguity in the law has turned into a statewide money-maker for property owners and real estate speculators eager to take advantage of rapidly rising property values. “A ‘substantial’ remodel has become a winwin for landlords,” Vera said. “You can remove the tenant, remodel the property and add higher value, and then you can rent it out for a higher amount. I mean, it’s a no-brainer from that perspective, it’s really the right time for this for a landlord.” Legal protections for tenants in Califor-
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nia increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, as landlords were required to provide more substantive reasoning for a no-fault eviction than in the past, Vera said. However, once property management entities figured out they could exploit the vague language of “renoviction” law, the practice became increasingly common. “Before 2020, your landlord could really evict you without almost any reason,” Vera said. “And now, they have to provide a reason but they’ve figured out which ones are easiest to use.” However, Vera emphasized that cases of unlawful renoviction in San Diego County remain an exception. “I mean this is a pretty big loophole in the law,” Vera said. “Most tenants don’t know what their rights are, and even with an attorney, you’ll have an
