Retaliatory Eviction for observing our rights to non- payment

[Myrissa Lopez]

Jurisdiction

California

A landlord that violates every civil code there is protecting a tenant and in every discriminatory way, multiple times while using law enforcement to try and achieve the goal of locking her tenants out indefinitely because she had actually removed all the tenants' belongings and rented the home to another family, never once filing an unlawful detainer but instead sending a fraudulent Notice of Belief of Abandonment when in actuality the landlord learned about the widowed mother's absence, harassed the 18, 16, and 13 year old tenants right out of the home using extorsion under the color of right by threats to and did call the police to assist, even CWS was called by the landlord to try and have them removed before they went to stay the night with a family friend at which time began the unwanted entries into the home which facilitated the removal of all the tenants personal possessions by the landlord and before the Mother could return only 90 days away the locks were changed and home was rented to another family leaving the original tenants homeless. After the landlord changed the locks a second time because the mother employed a lock smith, she called the cops on her landlord and the officer said it is a "civil matter". Isn't locking someone out of their home a crime and represented by a penal code? That's just touching the surface due to the fact that this was during Covid's halt on evictions for non-payment. In filing a civil suit can I state each violation or breach? There are so many, and they seem to overlap in a way. Do I start with the most severe or a chronological order of bad business practices? After all, said and done and the new tenants were moved in while the original tenants were staying in motels and automobiles the landlord files an elder abuse restraining order against the original tenants that the judge DENIED after a hearing. Isn't that malicious prosecution? This is a lot and I need help organizing it to file a suit in the Federal Court. I think the most weighted offense is that the landlord used the abandonment theory when in reality she was retaliating for the tenants observing their rights to non-payment during the pandemic but using something else as a basis for a lockout eviction. The tenant even responded to her fraudulent Notice stating she had no intention of abandoning the property before calling the locksmith, but the landlord locked her out again and accused her of a crime of vandalism. Again, is that malicious prosecution or extortion?

 

[justblue]

A landlord that violates every civil code there is protecting a tenant and in every discriminatory way, multiple times while using law enforcement to try and achieve the goal of locking her tenants out indefinitely because she had actually removed all the tenants' belongings and rented the home to another family, never once filing an unlawful detainer but instead sending a fraudulent Notice of Belief of Abandonment when in actuality the landlord learned about the widowed mother's absence, harassed the 18, 16, and 13 year old tenants right out of the home using extorsion under the color of right by threats to and did call the police to assist, even CWS was called by the landlord to try and have them removed before they went to stay the night with a family friend at which time began the unwanted entries into the home which facilitated the removal of all the tenants personal possessions by the landlord and before the Mother could return only 90 days away the locks were changed and home was rented to another family leaving the original tenants homeless. After the landlord changed the locks a second time because the mother employed a lock smith, she called the cops on her landlord and the officer said it is a "civil matter". Isn't locking someone out of their home a crime and represented by a penal code? That's just touching the surface due to the fact that this was during Covid's halt on evictions for non-payment. In filing a civil suit can I state each violation or breach? There are so many, and they seem to overlap in a way. Do I start with the most severe or a chronological order of bad business practices? After all, said and done and the new tenants were moved in while the original tenants were staying in motels and automobiles the landlord files an elder abuse restraining order against the original tenants that the judge DENIED after a hearing. Isn't that malicious prosecution? This is a lot and I need help organizing it to file a suit in the Federal Court. I think the most weighted offense is that the landlord used the abandonment theory when in reality she was retaliating for the tenants observing their rights to non-payment during the pandemic but using something else as a basis for a lockout eviction. The tenant even responded to her fraudulent Notice stating she had no intention of abandoning the property before calling the locksmith, but the landlord locked her out again and accused her of a crime of vandalism. Again, is that malicious prosecution or extortion?

Who are you in this situation?

 

[adjusterjack]

I need help organizing it to file a suit in the Federal Court.

Hire a lawyer.

Otherwise you are almost guaranteed to fail miserably in federal court.

Especially since landlord tenant laws are state and are enforced in state courts.

Seems like a good case of wrongful eviction for which there are remedies under state law.

You are still going to need an attorney to piece it all together, assuming you are one of the aggrieved parties.

 

[Myrissa Lopez]

Hire a lawyer.

Otherwise you are almost guaranteed to fail miserably in federal court.

Especially since landlord tenant laws are state and are enforced in state courts.

Seems like a good case of wrongful eviction for which there are remedies under state law.

You are still going to need an attorney to piece it all together, assuming you are one of the aggrieved parties.

So, from what I understand if a plaintiff is seeking over $75,000 in damages it should be filed at the federal level and since equal housing is a question of Federal law, I thought the two would allow that jurisdiction. And I have called at least 80 lawyers and legal aid groups who don't represent in my area. Plus, the landlord may have a relative that is a lawyer in the area which led to conflict-of-interest and dead ends on finding representation.

 

[Myrissa Lopez]

Who are you in this situation?

The rightful yet still homeless mother of the 4 tenants. My oldest son has a disability as well which raises the discrimination factor. Like I said it is a lot to dissect and organize but absent many other options I cannot let my children believe that there are no protections or remedies for the destruction our lives have seen as a result of the unlawful acts of another. I can only hope justice will prevail for their sake.

 

[Myrissa Lopez]

The rightful yet still homeless mother of the 4 tenants. My oldest son has a disability as well which raises the discrimination factor. Like I said it is a lot to dissect and organize but absent many other options I cannot let my children believe that there are no protections or remedies for the destruction our lives have seen as a result of the unlawful acts of another. I can only hope justice will prevail for their sake.

Why do you ask who I am in this situation? Does it change the way we can interpret the laws? Honestly, I expected some insight but to answer a question with a question? And leave me hanging? I'm not sure how to interpret your question to my question but I do apologize in advance if I offend. It has been a long hard road for my children. My autistic, insulin dependent son, my oldest, graduated high school the year before last. My middle child, another son graduated last school year and my youngest, my daughter is a sophomore with a 3.8 GPA, is a cheerleader and believe me THAT is almost an impossible feat for a homeless widowed mother of three during a pandemic that was debilitating enough without an unlawful lockout eviction leaving us homeless.

 

[Tax Counsel]

I don't see any basis in your post for filing in federal court. The federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) prohibits discrimination in housing on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), familial status, or disability. Your post doesn't say anything about the tenants being kicked out for one of those reasons. If there was a violation of the FHA then you could sue in federal court even if the claim was less than $75,000.

If all the claims in the case are actually state law claims, then the only way you could sue in federal court is if the claim was for at least $75,000 AND the plantiffs and the defendant are citizens of different states. Your post gives no indication that the landlord is a citizen of some other state. If either one of those conditions is not met then the plaintiffs will have to sue in state court. Note that it is generally less expensive, easier, and can be faster to sue in state court. So what reason would you want it in federal court?

Unless you were one of the tenants involved in the eviction, you cannot sue the landlord for this. And each tenant wanting help with the case would need to have an attorney do it. Being a relative of a tenant would not allow you to represent your relatives in court unless you yourself are an attorney.

As I don't have all the facts and don't know the landlord's side of it, I cannot say if there is a good claim to make against the landlord in this instance. You'd need to have a CA attorney review everything and see how strong a case there is here. You can likely find an attorney who will do an initial consultation on this for free or at low cost. If you find a lot of attorneys are not interested then that suggests this isn't a good case. Attorneys are not in the habit of turning down promising cases.

You might try finding a legal aid clinic to help with this, or try a legal clinic at a CA law school.

 

[Myrissa Lopez]

I don't see any basis in your post for filing in federal court. The federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) prohibits discrimination in housing on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), familial status, or disability. Your post doesn't say anything about the tenants being kicked out for one of those reasons. If there was a violation of the FHA then you could sue in federal court even if the claim was less than $75,000.

If all the claims in the case are actually state law claims, then the only way you could sue in federal court is if the claim was for at least $75,000 AND the plantiffs and the defendant are citizens of different states. Your post gives no indication that the landlord is a citizen of some other state. If either one of those conditions is not met then the plaintiffs will have to sue in state court. Note that it is generally less expensive, easier, and can be faster to sue in state court. So what reason would you want it in federal court?

Unless you were one of the tenants involved in the eviction, you cannot sue the landlord for this. And each tenant wanting help with the case would need to have an attorney do it. Being a relative of a tenant would not allow you to represent your relatives in court unless you yourself are an attorney.

As I don't have all the facts and don't know the landlord's side of it, I cannot say if there is a good claim to make against the landlord in this instance. You'd need to have a CA attorney review everything and see how strong a case there is here. You can likely find an attorney who will do an initial consultation on this for free or at low cost. If you find a lot of attorneys are not interested then that suggests this isn't a good case. Attorneys are not in the habit of turning down promising cases.

You might try finding a legal aid clinic to help with this, or try a legal clinic at a CA law school.

So, there is the fact that my oldest son is a disabled adult and my landlord neglected to treat him as she would have treated any other adult tenant. He is autistic and she disregarded him completely yet demanded the rent from his 13-year-old sister instead. I assume because she thought he was unable to maintain the home in my absence due to his disability but isn't that discrimination? I filed a complaint with HUD and the response was that I was outside the one-year statute for HUD to appoint counsel but within the two-year statute to sue her civilly. Not only that but this representative stated to me that not only did I have a case but that the party I would be Sueing had assets, including the home she kicked us out of. Also, isn't retaliation a form of discrimination if the retaliation is carried out because we were observing our rights to non-payment during the pandemic? And I haven't been turned down by any lawyers for reasons other than they don't represent in the area where the injury occurred. In fact, I had an attorney out of San Diego up until December of 2021 when He terminated his representation because the homeowner's policy claims adjuster refused to make a settlement offer at all claiming they would fight tooth and nail to pay out a penny on the claim. The demand letter was drafted for $67,000. Later when I contacted them myself, they offered me $500.00. Thats when I filed the complaint with HUD. I've called every legal aid office in California. I live in a very rural area but the couple lawyers in this area that handle cases of this nature said they could not represent me due to a conflict of interest. My landlord has a nephew I believe and is an Attorney in the area. figures!

 

[Zigner]

What "rights to non-payment" do you believe exist(ed) during the pandemic? There never was any sort of right granted to not pay rent.

 

[Red Kayak]

So, there is the fact that my oldest son is a disabled adult and my landlord neglected to treat him as she would have treated any other adult tenant.

You left your minor children in the care of your barely adult disabled son.
1) What is the extent of his disability? Would he be capable of holding down a full time job and living independently?
2) How long were you away and why? Days? Weeks?

He is autistic and she disregarded him completely yet demanded the rent from his 13-year-old sister instead. I assume because she thought he was unable to maintain the home in my absence due to his disability but isn't that discrimination?

Maybe the LL thought that the 13 year old would understand the request better.

It's not like he handed the LL the rent when it was due, right?

I filed a complaint with HUD and the response was that I was outside the one-year statute for HUD to appoint counsel but within the two-year statute to sue her civilly. Not only that but this representative stated to me that not only did I have a case but that the party I would be Sueing had assets, including the home she kicked us out of. Also, isn't retaliation a form of discrimination if the retaliation is carried out because we were observing our rights to non-payment during the pandemic? And I haven't been turned down by any lawyers for reasons other than they don't represent in the area where the injury occurred. In fact, I had an attorney out of San Diego up until December of 2021 when He terminated his representation because the homeowner's policy claims adjuster refused to make a settlement offer at all claiming they would fight tooth and nail to pay out a penny on the claim. The demand letter was drafted for $67,000. Later when I contacted them myself, they offered me $500.00. Thats when I filed the complaint with HUD. I've called every legal aid office in California. I live in a very rural area but the couple lawyers in this area that handle cases of this nature said they could not represent me due to a conflict of interest. My landlord has a nephew I believe and is an Attorney in the area. figures!

I'm seeing a lot of words and a lot of drama. I concur with AJ: you need a lawyer who can cut away the extraneous and make the legal points.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

Mother could return only 90 days

So you abandoned the property and your kids for 90 days?

You are lucky the county jail isn't your new landlord.

 

[adjusterjack]

In fact, I had an attorney out of San Diego up until December of 2021 when He terminated his representation because the homeowner's policy claims adjuster refused to make a settlement offer at all claiming they would fight tooth and nail to pay out a penny on the claim.

No surprise there. I don't see anything in your posts that even remotely connect a landlord's liability coverage to any of your claims.

The demand letter was drafted for $67,000. Later when I contacted them myself, they offered me $500.00.

The $500 is called "go-away" money. Claims need a release for some amount of money in order to be properly closed. Had you accepted you would have given up any and all claims against the landlord.

If you ever do get the landlord into court, he won't need his nephew lawyer, his insurance company will appoint an attorney who is highly skilled in liability defense law.