City Attorney Targets Landlords in Lawsuit Over Alleged Tenant Rights Violations

Tenant rights. Creative Commons.

LOS ANGELES — City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto’s office Feb. 5 filed a civil enforcement action against landlords Benny Pirian, Piaman Nisan Pirian and multiple business entities under their control (collectively “Defendants”). The suit alleges systemic and ongoing violations of state and local housing laws designed to protect renters. The Defendants own and operate at least 16 multifamily residential properties in Los Angeles – comprising over 100 rental units as well as single family rental properties. They are alleged to have engaged in a pattern of unlawful business practices, including withholding security deposits, increasing rent above legal limits, and charging excessive late fees for delinquent rent.

Feldstein Soto’s lawsuit seeks an injunction to stop the defendants’ alleged unlawful activity, restitution for tenants harmed by the unlawful activity, and civil penalties.

Defendants, who have an ownership interest in numerous rental properties throughout Los Angeles County, are alleged to have flouted state and local housing laws that were enacted to protect tenants.

This lawsuit alleges:

The Defendants retain most or all of their former tenants’ security deposits. When called out on this practice, they first ignore the complaints and then tell the former tenants that if they want to recover their money, they can go to court.
The Defendants’ standard lease agreement includes an unlawful provision that they may charge 10% of base rent as a late fee in the event the tenant is late. Despite this provision being an unenforceable penalty, the Defendants have charged individual tenants hundreds of dollars pursuant to this provision.
By at least mid-2021, the Defendants were on notice that rental increases they imposed during the COVID-19 local emergency were unlawful. Not only did they not roll back those illegal rent increases across the board, they instructed the tenants who complained not to tell their neighbors that the rent increases were illegal.
Defendants fail to pay interest on security deposits held one year or longer; and
Defendants discriminate against tenants based on how they receive housing subsidies, unlawfully pass city fees onto tenants and fail to provide contact information to tenants regarding the rental property’s owner and manager, as required by law.

If you are a tenant who lived in one of the Defendants’ units and believe that you experienced their alleged unlawful practices, contact the city attorney’s public rights branch by email at att.pirian@lacity.org or phone at 213-922-8390.