Rent Scam Exposed At Oakland’s Empyrean Towers

Rent Scam Exposed At Oakland’s Empyrean Towers

By Lynda Carson - December 7, 2014

Oakland — On Thursday December 4, a case went to trial in
Alameda County Superior Court involving Empyrean Towers (ET) formerly
known as the Hotel Menlo. This is the result of renters defending themselves
from unlawful evictions being conducted by real estate broker Alice
Tse, and her company InnoVistech Realty Company at ET.

Presently around 30 residents of ET are fighting back and are being represented
by the Eviction Defense Center, with legal assistance from attorney Andrew Wolff.

According to tenants, in addition to allowing ET to degenerate into slum-like conditions,
real estate broker Alice Tse has been violating California Civil Code Section 1940.1 by
running a rent scam on the tenants. She has unlawfully been forcing some tenants
out of their housing every 21 days in an effort to maintain the occupants in a transient
status. This artificially keeps the rents high, and deprives the tenants of their legal
rights under state and local rent laws.

Real estate broker Alice Tse has been forcing many of the the longtime occupants out
of Empyrean Towers (ET) for one week out of each month, then she would rent them a room
again for another 3 weeks before illegally forcing them out of their housing again, according
to tenants.

According to California Civil Code Section 1940.1, it reads: “No person may require
an occupant of a residential hotel, as defined in Section 50519 of the Health and
Safety Code, to move, or to check out and reregister, before the expiration of 30
days occupancy if a purpose is to have that occupant maintain transient occupancy
status pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (b) of Section 1940. In addition to any
remedies provided by local ordinance, any violation of subdivision (a) is punishable by
a civil penalty of five hundred dollars ($500). In any action brought pursuant to this section,
the prevailing party shall be entitled to reasonable attorney's fees.

Forced out of their housing, some tenants would end up in shelters and others would end up
sleeping in their cars at night until they were allowed to move back into ET again.

The ongoing unlawful eviction actions involved the Oakland Police Department, and
deprived the tenants of their protections with Oakland’s rent laws under Measure EE.

As recent as last weekend at least nine residents were locked out of their rental housing
at ET according to tenants, and management called the Police on the tenants to evict
them from their housing.

On Sunday December 7, Don Fisher and Maria Anast said: Since the Eviction Defense
Center has been helping out the tenants at ET things are so much better. Its very depressing
here but now we feel hope, and tenants are pleased about some victories. There have
been four victories for the tenants. Fewer tenants are paying rent until needed repairs
are being made, and management (Luis May) have stopped forcing the tenants out of
their housing every 21 days. Unfortunately, we lost some good people here during the
Thanks Giving weekend when management would observe people heading out for the
holiday, and would sneak into their rooms to change their locks and evict them from their
housing. Management would then place the tenant’s belongings in the office to pick up.”

“Things here used to be better when Anthony was in charge, except that he kept stealing
from the tenants and would rent out rooms already occupied, and would pocket the money.
Things were bad when Anthony was here, but under Luis May things really got worse and
he has been evicting many people from their housing every 21 days until the Eviction Defense
Center helped to put an end that practice.”

“Of concern in recent days, management has come up with a new “repair request form”
they want us all to sign that would put the blame on us for any and all repairs that need
to be made at the building including the old electrical wiring, and the tenants would be
made responsible to pay for all the repairs needed if they sign it. Management wants us
to believe that our appliances have caused the old electrical wiring in the building
to have problems,” Don and Maria said.

The situation at ET became public recently when the tenants spoke out
against slum-like conditions involving broken sinks and toilets,
showers that barely worked, bed bugs, rats, an elevator that
management did not allow the tenants to use in the seven story
building, in addition to the unlawful evictions forcing the tenants
out of their housing onto the cold-hearted streets of Oakland.

On November 25, Andrea Polega of the Empyrean Towers said: “I am a
tenant at Empyrean who is being kicked out at this very second after
having a money order returned to me that was in their possession for
more that 24 hrs. They returned it at 11 am telling me to be out by
noon. This is directly following my physical incapacitation in the
form of a  ruptured achilles tendon which was directly caused by their
negligence. I am on crutches  in a 6 story walkup and cannot go
up/down the stairs unassisted, let alone move my belongings this way.
At 2 pm they returned with police. I will be charged with trespassing
if I do not leave. I have nowhere to go. I would be more than happy to
go on record for any future articles against these bastards, or any
other media outlets to gain justice.”

According to the website for Empyrean towers, it states that there is no
guarantee that the residents can use the elevator in the seven story building.

Don Fisher and Maria Anast have also faced eviction and have been very concerned.

On November 13, Don Fisher and Maria Anast said: ”Life is very hard on us
now, and we do not feel safe living in this building. There are drug dealers,
crack heads, and prostitutes living on the upper floors. The cops are
here all the time. The locks are flimsy on our doors, and we keep a
baseball bat handy just in case someone breaks our door down to enter
our apartment. There is no heat. They do not allow the tenants to use
the elevator. The building has bed bugs, rats, and is loaded with
flies and nats from the garbage piled up at the property. Our toilet
does not work, the shower barely drips any water out of it when we try
to take a shower, and the building lacks smoke detectors in most of
the apartments.”

"We have been good tenants since moving in, are quiet, have payed our
rent on time and we were SHOCKED to find an eviction notice posted on
our door recently after management refused to accept our rent
anymore.”

The Empyrean Towers located downtown Oakland at 344 13th Street used
to be known as the Hotel Menlo and was owned by wealthy millionaire
Tiburon resident Richard Singer. Singer landed in prison a few years
ago after getting caught by the FBI in a sting operation for trying to
hire an arsonist to burn down the occupied hotel as part of an
insurance scam.

During August of 2011, Singer was sentenced to 27 months in prison,
was fined $60,000 and received three years probation after his release from
prison for the attempted arson scam. It was an employee of Singer named
Samuel Manning who worked with the FBI in a sting operation to nail Singer
for the arson scam, after Manning faced charges for embezzling the Girl Scouts
out of more than $50,000. Manning sought reduced charges against himself in
return for helping the feds go after Singer for the arson scam.

Public records with "corporation wiki" reveal that Richard Singer has partnered
with real estate broker Alice Tse to own and manage the building, and both are
members of Empyrean Towers LLC, and Innovistech Realty Co.

On Sunday December 7, staff at Empyrean Towers declined to make a comment about
the unlawful evictions allegedly taking place and advised me to try again on Monday.
I was told to ask for Property Supervisor, Luis May. Public records with the Secretary of
State reveal that Property Supervisor, Luis May, does not have a real estate license even
though state law requires property supervisors to have a real estate license.

Public records reveal that Alice F. Tse has a brokers license (01812673) that was issued on
2/5/2008 which has an expiration date on 6/27/2016.

A call made to Johanna Kwasniewski, the attorney for Alice Tse, asking for information
in regards to the unlawful evictions allegedly taking place at ET was not returned, and
in the past Johanna Kwasniewski declined to comment about the evictions at ET.

Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com

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