yeah, they seem to own everything! kinda scary...

just tonight i forgot my keys at work (in the east bay) and my building manager didn't have a set! what the fuck, what are they there for if they can't help with shit like that?

Unless your building is EXTREMELY unique for the neighborhood, it is under all applicaple rent control laws- the basic one being that your building was probably built before 1920. ALL buildings built before 1920 can only increase rent by a 'small' (2%?) percentage each year, with the exception of the owner (or a very well documented extension of said owner) moving into your space. Tenants rights in SF are almost ridiculously biased toward tenants. CitiApts is surely a worthy opponent, but I can guarantee that if you talk to someone in TL Housing (THC), or if you know any attorneys, that can spare a sheet of letterhead, look in phonebook bluepages under tenants' rights, call social services...

Basically, I think CitiApts is under the assumption that you don't know your rights. Even if you don't, SF is a pro-tenant city, if you have lived there for more than 30 days and your building wasn't built yesterday- regardless of income, etc. it is a (several years) long legal process to get you out. They know this. If you accept their offer to leave- get paid to leave. Friends of mine have received up to $3000 to vacate their apartments.

Seriously- don't sweat it. Just figure out who you need to contact...

Citi owned the last 2 buildings I've been in, but I think the apartment managers were the only ones preventing a mutiny. The place I'm at now is not owned by Citi, but the apartment manager can't / won't fix the sink that's always clogged and shower that randomly loses all cold water and burns you (probably because the rental company isn't as concerned with complaints as Citi is). I think almost everyone I've talked to that has dealt with Citi wants to burn their office down though.

Have y'all heard about this lawsuit? What goes around, comes around. BTW, I've heard first-hand about many of their tactics including intimidation, eviction threats, & retaliation. Don't rent from these folks if you have a choice!

www.beyondchron.org/articles...3591.html

Herrera Sues Skyline Realty, CitiApartments for Egregious Pattern of Illegal Business Practices
Aug. 17‚ 2006

City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed suit against one of the largest residential landlords and property managers in San Francisco today, alleging an egregious pattern of unlawful and unfair business practices whereby rental units were illegally recovered from tenants; renovated in clear violation of building and safety codes; and then unlawfully relet at dramatically increased rental rates -- occasionally as short-term corporate housing, representing still another violation of local law. The litigation against Skyline Realty, Inc., CitiApartments, Inc., and nine named subsidiary limited liability companies follows a months-long investigation by the City Attorney's Office, and details a shocking panoply of corporate lawlessness, intimidation tactics, and retaliation against residents.

"The facts revealed by my office's investigation demonstrate very clearly that the owners of Skyline Realty and CitiApartments made a calculated business decision to operate in violation of the law ?- and to do so consistently," Herrera said. "Given its dominant market position and web of subsidiaries, Skyline's illicit business practices do not merely victimize tenants, they cheat the vast majority of law-abiding landlords with whom they compete unfairly. Their business conduct is egregious, it is pervasive, it is illegal, and it will not be countenanced in San Francisco's rental marketplace."

According to the complaint filed in San Francisco Superior Court this morning, Skyline and CitiApartments employed frequently harrowing tactics to intimidate tenants into surrendering their rent controlled tenancies, including unannounced visits by armed paramilitary-like agents; unauthorized entry into rental units; shutting off utilities without notice and for extended periods; changing locks and depriving tenants of keys; and retaliating against tenants who refused to accept offered buy-outs. Once in control of vacated units, Herrera's complaint alleges, Skyline undertook occasionally extensive construction and remodeling work without bothering to obtain requisite permits, or to risk any of the inspections necessary to assure compliance with state and local safety and building codes.

In one of several representative violations detailed in the City Attorney's lawsuit, Skyline flouted the City's Hotel Conversion Ordinance by illegally offering residential units in a single room occupancy hotel for rent for non-residential or tourist use -- including as extremely lucrative "corporate suites." (Local law permits such conversions, but requires a mitigation fee to offset the loss of residential housing stock.)

When the defendants purchased the Gaylord Hotel at 620 Jones Street in August 2005, the building's Certificate of Occupancy confirmed it to be a 171-room residential hotel, with all of its rooms designated as residential, and none allowed for tourist use. Yet despite its current legal status as a solely residential hotel, the current owners within one year began marketing rooms for rent to tourists -- in flagrant violation of the HCO -- advertising, "Whether traveling for business or pleasure, Gaylord Suites (formerly The Gaylord Hotel) combines the comforts and conveniences of home with the luxury of hotel service."

The lawlessness appears to have reaped a substantial windfall -- at least in the short term. According to the Annual Unit Usage Report filed with the City's Department of Building Inspection by the Gaylord Hotel's previous owners in October 2004, average monthly rent for a residential room was $990. A year later -- following the defendant's purchase of the building and reincorporation as Gaylord Hotel LLC -- the average monthly room rental had skyrocketed more than four-fold, to $3,972.

Herrera's litigation against Skyline Realty, CitiApartments and related defendants alleges multiple violations of state and local laws, including the San Francisco Housing and Administrative Codes; California Health and Safety and Civil Codes; and the state Business and Professions Code's Unfair Competition Law. Apart from a court-ordered injunction against further lawlessness by the defendants, the civil action seeks disgorgement of profits and restitution, as well as recovery of civil penalties for past conduct that could include $1,000 per day for each Housing Code violation; $2,500 for each unlawful business act; and an additional $2,500 for each unfair and unlawful business act perpetrated against a senior citizen or disabled person. Attorneys' fees and costs are also sought under Herrera's action.

The City Attorney's Office maintains a Code Enforcement Hotline for callers speaking English, Spanish or Cantonese at the following telephone number: (415) 554-3977. Callers may use the hotline to report suspected illegal conduct by Skyline Realty, CitiApartments or its subsidiaries. A general TTY number for the office is available for hearing-impaired callers at (415) 554-6770.

The case is City and County of San Francisco and People of the State of California v. Skyline Realty Inc., CitiApartments, Inc., et al. San Francisco Superior Court, filed August 16, 2006.

Here's another article on the subject:

www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi

SAN FRANCISCO
City accuses big landlord of illegal tactics
Firm accused of forcing people out of rent-controlled units
Charlie Goodyear, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, August 17, 2006


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City Attorney Dennis Herrera accused one of San Francisco's biggest landlords on Wednesday of using intimidation, shutting off utilities and employing other illegal tactics to force tenants out of rent-controlled apartments so they can be leased to new renters at higher rates.

The allegations were contained in a lawsuit filed in Superior Court by Herrera's office against Citi-Apartments and its corporate parent, Skyline Realty, which is owned by real estate mogul Frank Lembi and his family. The companies operate more than 150 apartment buildings housing some 7,000 tenants.

"The facts revealed by my office's investigation demonstrate very clearly that the owners of Skyline Realty and CitiApartments made a calculated business decision to operate in violation of the law -- and to do so consistently," Herrera said in a written statement.

"Given its dominant market position and web of subsidiaries, Skyline's illicit business practices do not merely victimize tenants, they cheat the vast majority of law-abiding landlords with whom they compete unfairly. Their business conduct is egregious, it is pervasive, it is illegal, and it will not be countenanced in San Francisco's rental marketplace."

Representatives for Skyline have denied similar allegations made in a lawsuit filed on behalf of tenants earlier this year. In response to the suit filed by Herrera on Wednesday, CitiApartments issued a statement defending its record, saying it "is a proud provider of safe, clean and well-maintained apartments."

The company, according to the statement, "has not had a sufficient opportunity to review the allegations in the complaint and, in any event, chooses not to try this matter in the press. Instead, CitiApartments will prove its case in the appropriate legal forum."

Lawsuits filed by tenants in March and April seek compensation for illegal evictions and other alleged abuses. In the suit filed Wednesday, Herrara asks that the companies be fined for violating tenants' rental agreements and conducting unlawful business practice. The suit also seeks to bar the company from renting apartments in 10 of its buildings.

Herrera said city attorney investigators found the company was using armed, uniformed guards to intimidate tenants, ask them for identification when they come and go, and enter residences during unauthorized inspections. Tenants also were unlawfully threatened with eviction for having roommates, Herrera said.

"They'll say things like, 'You can go to the police but they're in our back pocket. They won't do anything,' " Lana Beckett, who lives at 737 Pine St., said Tuesday. "Tenants have come into my apartment, bursting into tears because they felt so threatened. It has felt like home invasion."

Other tenants declined to speak on the record or be named, saying they fear retaliation.

"People are afraid to make complaints or have (city inspectors) come in because they'll be singled out," said one man who has lived in a company-owned apartment near Civic Center for 15 years. "People are afraid to talk inside the building because you don't know if it will get back to the company. It's not a good way to live."

In April, a group of tenants sued CitiApartments, making allegations similar to those listed in Herrera's lawsuit. The city attorney is seeking a court to impose fines of $1,000 a day for city housing violations and $2,500 for each alleged unlawful business practice.

Skyline also is accused of marketing rooms allotted to long-term residents at the Gaylord Hotel on Jones Street to tourists, a violation of the city's hotel conversion law. The city alleges rooms at the hotel are being rented at more than four times the previous monthly rent.

Dean Preston, a lawyer with the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, has counseled or represented dozens of tenants who rent from CitiApartments.

"In my opinion, they're the most abusive landlord in San Francisco," he said Wednesday.

E-mail Charlie Goodyear at cgoodyear@sfchronicle.com.