City Demanding Property Management Company Honor Tenant Protection Ordinance

City officials have contacted a property management company to make sure Pasadena tenants displaced by a fire and asbestos contamination receive relocation funds.

The tenants were locked out of their units after the blaze broke out in one of the units in the apartment building in the 200 block of South Madison Avenue in December.

“The city is working to ensure compliance with the tenant protection ordinance, and that the residents receive compensation, where appropriate under the ordinance,” City Spokesperson Lisa Derderian told Pasadena Now.

Trilliant Property Management previously told the tenants that the insurance would cover relocation funds.

“We understand that the property owner’s insurance carrier has agreed that this is covered under her policy,” wrote Pam Thyret, field representative to Councilman Andy Wilson, who represents the area where the building is located.

“However, we don’t agree that the tenants should wait for payment from the insurance carrier. Therefore, we are pursuing with Trilliant’s legal council … unfortunately we do not have any timing on the payment yet.”

The ordinance requires landlords to pay relocation benefits to displaced tenants if the building is demolished, converted to condominiums, or permanently removed from the rental market.

Tenants evicted so landlords or their family members can take occupancy of the unit are also eligible for relocation fees, as are tenants forced to move under orders by the government to vacate and tenants evicted from housing owned by educational institutions under certain situations.

Multifamily rental properties with two or more units on a single parcel are subject to the ordinance. Single-family homes and condominium units are exempt.

To be eligible for relocation benefits, tenants must be in good standing, with incomes not exceeding 140 percent of the Los Angeles County area median income.

One tenant received a document that would have released the landlord and the property management company from all damages in exchange for just two months rent, the security deposit and $100 dollars.

Things between the property management firm and the tenants have been tense since the blaze broke out in December.

After the fire, the tenants told Pasadena Now they received very little communication or help from Trilliant and earlier this month objected to paying February rent.

A meeting by Trilliant with the tenants at City Hall in January was canceled. Under the rules of that meeting proposed by Trilliant, tenants would have been forced to submit their cell phones and speak for less than two minutes. They would be recorded. Trilliant officials also said they would not make copies of the meeting transcript available to tenants, and threatened to have them physically removed if they disrupted the meeting.

City officials objected to the rules and the meeting was canceled. Tenants were then told they would not have to pay February rent.

Last month Trilliant CEO Erik Rivera told Pasadena Now that threats have been made against Trilliant employees.

“Trilliant has received written threats of violence, including shooting our employees with a shotgun,” Rivera told Pasadena Now on Feb. 6. “It has been speculated that this threat is from one of these tenants, and is currently under investigation.”

A Pasadena police official later told Pasadena Now they had not been notified about the threats.

In that email Rivera said 18 units at the property could require a Procedure 5 clean up of asbestos contamination. Under Procedure 5, the Environmental Protection Agency mandates a specialized clean-up process must be completed by a licensed abatement company.

Under the cleanup plan, tenants who lived in the contaminated units could lose many of their belongings.

Under the cleanup plan, porous contents are considered ‘asbestos waste,’ including papers, clothes, beds, and any items that cannot be wiped down. It also includes computers, appliances, TV’s, and any electronic items that have a fan.