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Legal Column, September 2003
By Gordon P. Gitlen, Esq.

Can you live in your condominium? When the Santa Monica Rent Control Law passed in 1979, it was based on a claim that there was a plethora of demolitions of apartment buildings and conversions of apartment buildings to condominiums. To stop the loss of this type of housing, the Rent Control Law specifically provided that an owner cannot accomplish an eviction from a condominium unless the owner had received a vested rights determination from the Santa Monica Rent Control Board or a removal permit, which was not possible in most cases. However, many years later, the voters of the City of Santa Monica passed the TORCA Law which did provide for the conversion of apartment buildings to condominiums and specifically granted tenants who were living in their units at the time of the conversion process, protection against owner occupancy evictions. However, that protection did not extend to subsequent renters, only to the participating tenants. After the TORCA law lapsed, many units were sold and for various reasons, participating tenants vacated. Many purchasers of TORCA units elected to rent their units and not owner occupy the condominium. There are many TORCA units today occupied by non-participating tenants. When these non-participating tenants receive a 60-day notice of termination of tenancy for the purposes of a new owner who is desirous of moving in, they inquire as to their legal rights. The Santa Monica Rent Control Board and local tenant attorneys seek to extend the protections of the TORCA law and the rent control law to these non-participating tenants.

Our firm has successfully prosecuted at least two such cases with the result that the non-participating tenants do not have the same protection as a participating tenant. These court decisions, however, are only trial court decisions and there is no court of appeal decision that would be binding on all courts.

The issue has surfaced from time to time, but most tenants take the relocation assistance money and move. Presently, one of our clients who purchased a TORCA condominium seeks to evict the non-participating tenant for purposes of owner occupancy. At first, we believed that the non-participating tenant would simply take the relocation assistance and vacate, but we quickly realized that this was not the case. The Rent Control Board was asked by the tenant to intervene in the lawsuit to control the outcome of the case. When the tenant did not vacate, we filed the lawsuit. The Rent Control Board told the court that it wanted to intervene because the tenant could not afford to do the appeal and the Rent Control Board wanted to prosecute the appeal in the event that the tenant lost the case. Naturally, the Rent Control Board would not charge the tenant for this “free” legal service.

The court denied the Rent Control Board’s claim to intervention
because it is not a party to the action and instead suggested that it may file an amicus curie brief in which it could express its opinion to the trial court.

This matter will be coming to trial very soon. We are optimistic that we shall again prevail and if the tenant persists and files an appeal, that we will finally have a decision on point that will guide all courts.

The last TORCA application was filed on July 1, 1996 and there were approximately 330 properties converted to condominiums during the existence of the TORCA law. This means that approximately 3,500 rental units were converted to condominiums, which gave participating tenants the ability to accomplish the American dream of owning your own home.