My Non-Paying Tenant Hired BASTA and is Demanding a Jury Trial! – By Grayce Long, Attorney

You have a tenant who refuses to pay rent. You have served a 3-Day Notice to Pay Rent or Quit which has expired. Your attorney files an unlawful detainer case in the Los Angeles Superior Court and you are then notified that a firm called BASTA files an answer to the complaint alleging that “You have breached the Warranty of Habitability or that your action is a Retaliatory Eviction or some other ridiculous defense, and this BASTA is demanding a jury trial. Now what?

This article will attempt to explain who BASTA is, what their role is in an Unlawful Detainer case, and what do you do when BASTA becomes involved.

BASTA – Who Are They?

BASTA, when translated into English, means “Enough”.  BASTA is one of the many tenant unlawful detainer defense firms that litigate unlawful detainers lawsuits for the tenant.

When you call BASTA and you get their answering machine, you are greeted with “If the landlord wants a fight…we will give them a fight”.  Sets the tone right?

What they really should say is if you want to pay us $5,000.00 and waive all the rent owed, we will forgo a jury trial – otherwise we are going to make you spend lots of money to evict your tenant no matter what.

If you haven’t read the article “How Superman of Renters Daniel Bramzon Revolutionized L.A.’s Eviction Defense Industry” published by LA Weekly in December, 2014, I advise you to do so.  BASTA professes to be the champion of the poor however it is common knowledge that BASTA receives a large chunk of the money that landlords pay out to avoid a jury trial.

Why Are Jury Trials Allowed?

I can’t tell you how many times a client will ask me that question when they do not want a jury trial. The answer is simple – you don’t have a choice.  It is a constitutional right to have a trial by a jury of your peers.  BASTA takes this right to new heights by requesting a jury trial for every tenant.  Usually, you find out  that your case is a BASTA case when they file an answer checking every single box on the form.

The Discovery Process

The next step is the discovery process.  Here you find out that your tenant, in most cases, is complaining about the habitability of the unit.  Watch out for this!   BASTA usually will advise the tenant to call the Housing Inspector and complain to a governmental authority. Further, if you happen to be cited, BASTA will have the further audacity to advise the tenants to not allow you access to YOUR RENTAL UNIT to make repairs.

Normally, BASTA will send you a letter with their discovery requests, especially in rent controlled areas.  In that letter they will say that if you don’t wish to respond to the discovery and would like to settle the case,  you can pay the tenant anywhere from $3,500 to $5.000, waive all rent and allow the tenant 60 to 90 days to vacate.  It’s absurd!

Fight Back!

What can you do as a landlord?  The answer is fight back. If BASTA wants a fight give them a fight.  Serve discovery on them and find their weaknesses and put them on the defensive.

The Jury Trial

As stated above, whenever BASTA represents a tenant in an unlawful detainer case they will request a jury trial. The tenant will have filed a Fee Waiver which allows them to litigate the case for free.   BASTA, who claims to represent indigent tenants, has their fees paid by grants that they receive from the Federal and State Government.

You are not so lucky. You have to pay the filing fees and your own attorney fees to reclaim your rental property.

BASTA normally will show up first day of jury trial and the game playing begins.  They have so many cases that your attorney usually will only get 15 to 20 minutes in the morning to speak with them.  The usual demand is $5,000.00 for non-rent control cases and $10,000.00 to $18,000.00 for rent controlled properties – simply to get your property back from a non-paying tenant!

The worst part of the whole equation is that the judges in Los Angeles allow the game playing and cater to BASTA’s schedule.  If they are engaged in trial their case will be continued to a “firm” date sometime a month later.  This means that you can expect to come back two or three times to court before your case either gets settled or is sent out to jury.

How to Avoid Paying BASTA

What is the best way to avoid paying BASTA or any tenant litigation defense firm money, which is what they want?

• Limit the attorney fees clause in your rental agreement to $500.00. BASTA is focused on the big money cases for jury. They love cases where there is an unlimited attorney fees clause. (AOA’s Rental Agreement and/or Lease contains this clause.)
• Don’t back down and don’t pay them money. If you pay them their extortion fee of $5,000.00 because you don’t want to fight a jury trial and hire an attorney to represent you, you are setting a bad precedent. Further, BASTA will remember you and your property. You can bet that on your next eviction BASTA will represent the tenant and will demand the same monies you paid on the other case.
• Lastly, if you are one of the unlucky landlords who have lost a case to BASTA and they have a judgment against you, run to the nearest post office and mail them a cashier’s check for the attorney’s fees that they received in the judgment. If they don’t get their money right away, they will double the judgment in a month’s time for asset searches, abstracts and research and it is all legal.

Whatever you do, do not represent yourself in an eviction if BASTA is on the other side.  They will outmaneuver you. Go to an attorney.

Attorney Helen Grayce Long is an attorney at Fast Eviction Service. She attended UC Berkeley and graduated with a bachelor of arts.  She then attended the University of San Francisco School of Law. Grayce has been an attorney for 25 years and specializes in Real Estate Law.  She’s done landlord/tenant work throughout the state of California with an emphasis on Rent Control law.  For more information, call (800) 686-8686, email hglongatty@fastevict.com or visit www.fastevictionservice.com  

Our Eviction Court System – the Wild, Wild West!

By Grayce Long, Attorney AOA of California, INC.

Over a year ago, I wrote an article about what changes were going to take place because the Los Angeles Superior Court system had implemented 60 million dollars in cutbacks and laid off over a quarter of the court employees since 2008. I projected what I thought would happen with the court system and how unlawful detainers would be affected. For the most part, I was correct but many new issues have arisen in the past year.

We have begun to call it the Wild, Wild West. Why? Because on a contested case, you never know what courtroom you will be sent to and you never know how the judge is going to decide your case. For every contested case in which I have similar fact scenarios, I can have different rulings from different judges. It really doesn’t matter what the law says to the contrary, judges have a lot of judicial discretion when deciding a case and many times they will bend over backwards to help the tenant.

The Court System

There are five courts in Los Angeles County that hear unlawful detainers – downtown L.A., Santa Monica, Long Beach, Pasadena and Lancaster. Downtown L.A. is the main hub court. When you file an unlawful detainer you will be in one of these five courts. However, if your case gets contested and the opposing side gives a trial estimate of more than 20 minutes, you will be assigned to Department One in downtown to get sent to a different courtroom to hear your trial. This is true for Long Beach, Santa Monica, L.A. and Pasadena. So when your case gets assigned to Department One you have no idea where you will end up. For example, when in Long Beach, I have been assigned to Santa Monica court. When in Santa Monica court, I have been assigned to Torrance, and when in downtown, I have been assigned to Van Nuys and even Pomona!

Legal Aid Delays

With the cutbacks you would think that it would have been the end to state funded legal aid organizations under the auspices of the Shriver project and BASTA. However, that is not the case. We still have many cases in which an attorney representing the tenant will file an answer and send out lots of discovery and request a jury trial. We have seen an increase in these cases in Santa Monica, Lancaster and Long Beach. However, downtown L.A. is still the main heartbeat for legal aid organizations and you can expect many delays when they represent the tenant. Sometimes you can have up to three court appearances before your case gets resolved.

What Every Landlord Should Do

What is the best way to combat all these delay tactics?

• Make sure that you inspect your unit at least twice a year.
• Inspect your unit before you put a tenant in eviction to make sure that he has no complaints and that the unit is in good condition.
• Take plenty of pictures of the unit before the tenant moves in so you have something to show to the judge when the tenant complains that the property was uninhabitable.
• Check your carbon monoxide and smoke detectors to make sure they are working properly.
• Above all keep good records of your tenant’s rental payments.

Another good tip is to make sure that your attorney fee provision is limited to $500 in your rental agreement. This can be a big detractor for the money-hungry defense attorneys who want to take the case to a jury trial.

See original article here: http://www.aoausa.com/magazine/?p=2361

How to deal with an Eviction Process

Receiving an eviction notice is a situation no one would like to experience, but unfortunately it does happens sometimes. An eviction is legal action that is taken by a landlord to remove a renter from his/her current rental home. The landlord must follow a series of steps and requirements to complete the process.

Evictions could happen for several reasons, but usually involve tenants that are behind in monthly payments and cannot agree or commit to a payment plan with the landlord. As a result, the tenant is breaking a term of the rental agreement. Evictions can also take place when the unit or building is going to be sold and the tenant refuses to vacate the property. Tenants and landlords need to know how to handle this process properly to avoid further legal complications.

If you​ ​receive an eviction notice, the first thing you should do is relax and attempt to find out why you are receiving it in the first place. Speak to your landlord and fine out what is happening if you don’t already know. If you know why and would like to stay in the property, try to seek a solution with your landlord directly.

It is in the best interest of both parties to avoid any legal proceeding unless strictly ​necessary. As with any legal process, evictions are not good on your credit as a renter, so an early settlement is always the best option. Even though an eviction is a complicated and stressful process, we will kindly work with our tenants to make it easier and find a solution keeping all interests of everyone involved a priority. Communication is key!