Renters Protest Irvine Co. Sale of Their Units

ORANGE —  About 25 angry renters demonstrated Sunday at a Jamboree Road housing complex, saying that the Irvine Co. did not tell them before they moved in that their rental units would be sold as condominiums.

The protesters urged Gov. Pete Wilson to sign a bill they said would prevent developers from leasing apartments to people without informing them of plans to convert the units to condominiums.

The bill, AB 3013, sponsored by Assemblyman Mickey Conroy (R-Santa Ana) and supported by the demonstrators, passed both houses of the Legislature and is on the governor’s desk. He has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto it. It requires developers to warn renters in writing that their units have been approved for sale to the public as condominiums.

However, even if signed into law, the demonstrators said, the bill would not help them, since it would not go into effect until Jan. 1 and would not be retroactive.

Their dispute with the Irvine Co. began in July, 1991, when the developer, facing a soft rental market and low mortgage interest rates, announced plans to sell 1,500 rental units in six Orange County complexes, including the Canyon Hills complex where the Sunday demonstration was held.

Dawn McCormick, a spokeswoman for the company, said in an earlier interview that “at the time the tenants signed their leases, the company had no intention of putting apartments on the market.”

All Irvine Co. rental agreements signed since late 1991 include wording similar to that in the bill, McCormick said. The Irvine Co., after some initial reservations and compromises, supported the legislation.

One demonstrator, Fred Gertz, said it was “misrepresentation” that he received notice of the company’s plans three days after moving into his unit.

Craig Clark, who owns a home in the area, said his mother-in-law and her 95-year-old mother moved to a unit in the complex to be close to other family members.

“If the rental agreement had said that they are planning on selling these in two months or two years or 20 years, they would have thought twice about actually moving in,” Clark said.

Annalisa Del Rio, who heads the protest group, Tenants United for Fairness, said: “We feel we’ve been lied to. We feel we’ve been deceived. We feel that they had a moral, hopefully legal, obligation to tell us the truth. . . . I think that the Irvine Co. thought that there was a chance for them to make a quick buck from selling these rather than continuing to rent them. . . . I don’t think they treated us fairly.”

The Irvine Co. has offered renters various forms of compensation, including a $2,500 discount if they want to purchase their unit; $500 in moving expenses, if not; last month rent free if they waited until they received a notice to leave; first month free rent if they moved to another Irvine Co. rental unit.

But several demonstrators said that if they bought the units they were now renting for about $1,000 a month, their mortgage payments and taxes would average $1,500, which many could not afford.

As tenants’ leases run out and are succeeded by month-to-month agreements, the Irvine Co. has sent them notices to vacate, the demonstrators said. And since the proposed law, if signed, will not affect them, several of the tenants are suing the Irvine Co. for damages.

L. Scott Karlin, attorney for the group, said: “The Irvine Co. does not like to call the process an eviction but, call it what you want--termination, eviction, the boot-out, whatever you want--you’re getting rid of them well before they intended to leave.”

The Irvine Co. has asked that the civil suit be dismissed.

A sales representative, who requested anonymity, said that sales of condominiums at the complex had been “fabulous” and that three units had been sold Sunday.