Marjorie Schafer
La Crescenta
Area needs watchdog to care for renters
Having been an apartment dweller in Los Angeles for 36 years, I’m very tired of being a victim to apartment management companies. Like now, the property management company of my current building is raising my rent again.
They raised it in March, now they’re raising it in October. Because Los Angeles has no laws to stop them, they’re going to be raising it every six months, now? That’s so wrong. There used to be a law that management companies could only raise the rent once a year. Now they can do whatever they want.
And they don’t fix things — I have a faucet that’s running in the bathtub. Hot water. My gas bill was $82.17 last month because of it (more than $50 higher than usual). The management company says they won’t fix it because “the plumbing’s on the outside wall and, in order to fix it, they’ll have to tear out the plumbing,” which they won’t do. So I not only get my rent raised another $35, but I’m having to pay about $50 more a month for gas because of their negligence. All of this while I’m unemployed. I talked to my lawyers. They said I could have it fixed myself and deduct the amount (can’t afford it while I’m living on unemployment) or I could report them to the Housing Department. Just what I need, another war with a management company. There’s no way for a tenant to win one of those — I would know from experience.
