“I will consider everything everybody submitted and said,” he told the property owners and tenants.
Former tenant Homer Tom told Monette he appreciated the property owners’ and operators’ attempts to improve the apartment complex at 2121 Valderas Drive, but said they never told tenants about the level of construction.
Tom said the property owners didn’t respond to his complaints about shoddy construction work, such as open holes on his walls, lack of water, noise after hours and dust and dirt.
Former tenants Ted Naroda, Luis Madrigal and Angelo Synodis and current tenant Bahman Ahmadpour echoed Tom’s sentiments about the construction.
Tenants were given 24 hours notice the same day that water was shut off, Naroda said.
Former tenant Damon der Avanessian said strong chemical odors lingered throughout the apartment complex and said he often couldn’t use his bathroom because it was flooded.
“There were times my wife and I would have no water, so we would walk to the gas station to use the bathroom,” he said. “It was just ongoing.”
StarPoint and Valderas Drive companies came under scrutiny in April 2007 after residents said some tenants were evicted without reason and given raised rents after complaining about poor construction work.
The company purchased the property a month earlier for $17 million and immediately began construction to upgrade the units.
StarPoint had served 20 eviction notices in April without giving reasons, which violates the city’s just-cause-for-eviction ordinance.
The ordinance requires landlords to cite one of 11 acceptable reasons for evicting tenants and to pay evicted tenants relocation fees of $1,000 plus two months’ worth of fair market rent.
