![]() ![]() The Manns are also required to pay relocation fees to the tenants who needed to vacate the properties named in the case. “We’re weighing all our options,” said Hancock. The landlords could choose to appeal part or all of the decision in the coming days. ![]() Where applicable, when there’s criticism, we’re listening.” “The judge interpreted certain conditions as TPO violations. “Victory in this case means that tenants in Oakland do not have to choose between their fundamental rights and having a roof over their head at any cost…No longer will businesses like Dodg Corporation be able to run roughshod over the people relying on them for shelter, and no longer will landlords feel the same impunity to outright ignore their legal obligations under our local laws.”Īn attorney for the Manns, Aaron Hancock, disputed the city’s claim of unequivocal victory in the case, saying the judge’s ruling “wasn’t entirely one-sided.” Referring to the renter who damaged her own unit and attempted to block inspectors from coming in, he said, “There was one tenant who barricaded us out and tried to put together a Ghostship.”īut “the city sent a pretty strong message, and we’re listening to that message,” Hancock said. “This is what justice for Oakland residents looks like,” said Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker, in a press release Monday. They must also fix remaining code violations, provide a list of all their residential units, and submit regular updates on their properties. Under the judge’s ruling, Baljit Singh Mann and Surinder Mann must stop all involvement with leasing at any of their Oakland properties for five years, and instead hire a “qualified” property management company. The city will also be entitled to additional attorney fees. According to the city attorney’s office, the penalties add up to $3.9 million. Seligman ordered the full penalty in some cases, and required the Manns to pay a lower fee in others, including at a property where some of the issues were caused by a tenant. Under Oakland’s Tenant Protection Ordinance, or TPO, a court can require a landlord to pay up to $1,000 a day per violation of the policy. The landlords did not pay those renters mandatory relocation fees, the judge wrote. In some cases, the city ultimately deemed the spaces uninhabitable, causing tenants to have to relocate on short notice. Many of these units had been illegally converted from commercial or warehouse spaces into residential apartments, through what the judge described as a “deliberate evasion of the building permit process.”Ĭity inspectors issued numerous violation notices at these properties, but the mandatory repairs often went uncorrected. ![]() Some bedrooms were windowless and hallways were too narrow to allow for safe evacuation, and living quarters smelled moldy. Most of the tenants at these properties were low-income immigrants, many of whom did not speak English, according to the city attorney’s office.Ĭourt documents describe the Manns’ pattern of renting units at these properties that often lacked smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, had illegally installed water heaters-or no hot water at all-and hazardous electrical wiring. The case centers on six properties in East Oakland, on Hegenberger Road, and Foothill and International boulevards. The city also argued that the Manns were violating state nuisance laws by allowing their properties to fall into dangerous states of disrepair. and SBMANN2 in 2019, alleging numerous violations of the city’s Tenant Protection Ordinance, which prohibits landlord harassment. The city of Oakland sued the Manns and their real estate companies Dodg Corp. A prominent Oakland landlord must pay the city of Oakland nearly $4 million after repeatedly renting illegal and hazardous units to tenants at several East Oakland properties, an Alameda County Superior Court judge ruled this month.īaljit Singh Mann and Surinder Mann, a married couple and members of an influential Oakland family that owns 130 commercial and residential properties, as well as a taxi company, had a “business practice renting dangerously converted spaces unfit for residential use to vulnerable tenants,” wrote Judge Brad Seligman in his Sept. ![]()
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