Barrington Plaza tenants go to court to stop evictions

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- People living at a West Los Angeles apartment complex are fighting to stay there, claiming the building owner is using a California law to force them out.

What is happening at Barrington Plaza?

Hundreds of residents at the complex on Wilshire Boulevard are facing eviction and are growing concerned.

"My rent will go up. I will have to find another place," said Miki Goral, who has lived at Barrington Plaza for more than three decades.

In 2020, a fire damaged one of the buildings and the building owner has said they need to perform safety upgrades and add sprinklers, but residents are skeptical.

"This is our home, this is our community ... to be forced out is devastating," said resident Andrew Rahm.

The Barrington Plaza Tenants Association filed a lawsuit to stop the evictions, claiming the building company is using the Ellis Act - which was created to allow landlords to leave the rental business and take the units off the market - to wrongfully evict more than 700 units.

The group claims in this case, the evictions are illegal.

"I think that they're not going out of the rental business," said Goral. "I think that what they want to do is upgrade these apartments and then charge tremendous rates."

On Wednesday, tenants went to court to fight the evictions.

"It opens the door for every tenant throughout the state in a rent control jurisdiction to be at risk of their landlord using the Ellis Act for mere renovations and not going out of the rental business," explained Larry Gross with the Coalition for Economic Survival.

Eyewitness News contacted Douglas Emmett Inc., which owns the buildings, for a statement from the company's attorneys but was told they would not do any interviews Wednesday.

The case is expected to last several days, and it's unclear when the judge will make a final ruling.