Originally published at: San Francisco landlord tortures a couple who dared stand up for themselves | Boing Boing
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I’m confused at how the first agreement to settle the renter’s claim of illegally raising rent to the tune of $90K over the years didn’t have some sort of stipulation that the rollback of the rent for the apartment would be permanent (or have some sort of guaranteed duration). I mean, otherwise, it is pretty much assured the scumbag landlord would do what he did: pocket the roughly $70K the tenants agreed to forgo in return for the original rental rates, and then jack the rent up again. I’d imagine a good lawyer would put into writing some sort of “if you don’t abide by this agreement” clause that would trigger an instant repayment, with interest, of all the owed money.
Landlords, like many other lower forms of life, seem to respond only to negative reinforcement to control their behavior.
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if she felt foolish about getting had for $90k, i wonder what she feels now?
they have to stop being so nice to someone who obviously doesn’t care about screwing them over.
Well no… Let’s not victim blame here. The landlord needs to be brought to justice and make them financially whole. 
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This landlord doesn’t read BoingBoing
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I think that the DK’s had some advice that pertains to this topic:
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As I understood it from watching the video, they wouldn’t have actually needed a stipulation like that, because the apartment remained under rent-control. Which is why the landlord is trying to use the Ellis Act, to evict the tenants and remove the apartment from rent-control.
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For people in LA, if you have any concerns, call LAHD! They are great.
I was in a years-long battle with a landlord in LA where she kept trying to raise my rent illegally, transfer utilities into my name, refusing repairs, etc. LAHD was super helpful. A real person answers the phone, explains the laws to you, sends you links to said laws to send to your landlord, provides referrals to legal help if needed, all kinds of stuff. They are on your side 100%.
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It’s like those cube houses in the Netherlands.
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They might end up the owners and need to deal with trying to make automation not automatically raise rent to ‘competitive,’ hit the Ellis Act like it was the screenwipe Extra, and schedule union wall fixup etc. or find a thirtysomething who takes supervision likewise.
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If the owner does it the Ellis Act, essentially removing the entire building from the rental market… …start watching the property like a hawk to confirm it doesn’t go back to being rentals.
SF has imposed massive awards former evicted tenants for bad faith evictions.
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i’m not saying they deserved it or that the landlord shouldn’t be prosecuted.
i’m saying good practice is to get a lawyer.
i’m saying that if you look at life through rose colored glasses,
red flags just look like flags.
So, go through life being suspicious of everyone and assuming the worst… got it! /s
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