The suit follows an announcement by owners last month that the complex -- which has been the scene of two fires over the past decade, including one that killed a 19-year-old foreign exchange student -- will be closing to all renters and begin vacating occupied units so the buildings can be renovated with fire sprinklers and other safety upgrades.
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Monday's Los Angeles Superior Court complaint focuses on a state law that allows landlords to evict if they plan to remove the units from the rental market.
Passed in 1985, the Ellis Act was created to allow mom-and-pop landlords to go out of the rental business and take the units off the rental market. However, the suit contends the rent-controlled property owner, Douglas Emmett Inc., is
in violation of the law and is improperly using it to justify evicting tenants.
Eric Rose, a spokesperson for Barrington Plaza, said in a statement to City News Service: "We have received the action filed by some of our tenants and are in the process of reviewing the claims made. Primarily it is important to note, Barrington Plaza has and is following the rules laid out by the Ellis Act. The units are being removed from the market under the terms of the Ellis Act as well as the City's implementing ordinances. As has been stated by the City, ownership of Barrington Plaza has been and continues to be uncertain about the ultimate disposition of the units and are preparing for a host of options, inclusive of rehabilitation of the complex to comply with all current fire and life safety requirements. To the extent that the units were brought back onto the rental market, the owner would follow all obligations relative to former tenants as provided in those State and local rules.''
The tenant suit maintains that the landlord can make the safety upgrades without permanently displacing them.
"They want to renovate it. And they clearly want to re-rent it, and that's not what the Ellis Act is about,'' said Larry Gross, executive director of the citywide tenant group Coalition for Economic Survival.
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"Under the city's primary renovation ordinance, Douglas Emmett can install fire sprinklers without evicting tenants. The ordinance allows landlords doing major renovations to temporarily relocate residents to comparable units until the work is done, at which time tenants can move back to their units with a minor rent increase.''
The Ellis Act has been routinely used by developers to circumvent local eviction protections in order to oust low-income and working renters to convert the property into luxury hotels and condominiums, the plaintiffs' attorneys allege -- leading to what they say has been the removal of tens of thousands of rent-controlled units in Los Angeles, worsening the city's affordable housing crisis.
The relocation fees and services provided by the city do not begin to make up for the cost and catastrophic consequences of forcing tenants out of our rent-stabilized apartments, the plaintiffs' attorneys say.
Miki Goral, who has lived in a rent-controlled unit at Barrington Plaza for 34 years, said getting evicted would disrupt her life.
"It's a very convenient location for my work, for public transportation,'' she said. "I don't have a car, so I depend on public transportation.''
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A majority of the building's tenants are a mix of retirees, working-class and white-collar workers and students.
Lewis Fendell, a 50-year Barrington Plaza resident, said he recently had surgery and does not want to move. Jacqui Fournier moved to Barrington Plaza during the pandemic and pays $1,595 for a studio unit on the 10th floor.
"We want to stay in our homes,'' she said. "We cannot get on the Westside a comparable apartment at what we are paying now.''
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