New York Defends Tenants!
New York may be the first city to provide lawyers for all income qualified tenants being evicted. Wow. Let’s hope this kind of thinking come to Los Angeles.
Bienvenidos Immigration Posts Pricing!
Bienvenidos, the nonprofit immigration services division of BASTA, Inc., has posted pricing for immigration services. For too long the community has suffered from price gouging and faulty work prepared by unlicensed “notarios”. Bienvenidos provides immigration services from real lawyers at an affordable price. Take a look, and visit bienvenidos.net!
Rent Control Evictions Increasing in Los Angeles
“In a booming real estate market, rental properties are often converted to condominiums or upscale rental buildings by developers seeking a profit. Under city law, property owners must provide protections for tenants in rent-stabilized units, giving them ample time to move out and offering compensation. A total of 6,803 complaints were filed by tenants living in rent-controlled properties last year, compared with 5,049 in 2011.”
Read the whole article:
http://www.dailynews.com/social-affairs/20160805/la-renters-fed-up-over-evictions-as-rents-and-complaints-rise
Attorney Rob Reed joins the BASTA Team
We are excited to welcome Attorney Rob Reed to the BASTA family. Rob will be part of our class/mass action division. Referred to as the “Godfather of Eviction Defense” in LA, Rob Reed has defended thousands of tenants in evictions since 2004, first at the Eviction Defense Network, where he also served as Co-Executive Director, then in Public Counsel’s Shriver Civil Gideon eviction defense unit. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law and Illinois Institute of Technology.
BASTA Is Growing!
Rent control evictions are skyrocketing across Los Angeles bringing more people than ever to BASTA for our full range of tenant services. Our current offices at 2500 Wilshire can no longer accommodate our growth so we’ll be moving down the street to much larger facilities to be able to help even more of the community.
We’re excited to announce that today BASTA retained Jerome Chang and CODAspaces to design and furnish our new offices. We hope to move in by the end of the year… stay tuned!
How “Superman of Renters” Daniel Bramzon Revolutionized L.A.’s Eviction-Defense Industry
Order Approving Class Action Settlement for BASTA
The plaintiff tenant class received final approval from the Court for their $1.5 million negotiated settlement of damages allegedly sustained after being made to endure substandard housing conditions and illegal rent increases by their landlords at their residential rental property. The net settlement proceeds (after fees, costs and administrative expenses) of approximately $1 million dollars will be divided among the class members according to a formula based mainly on each class members’ length of tenancy at the subject property. The proceeds of any uncashed settlement checks will go to benefit Esperanza Community Housing Corp, a nonprofit organization offering support to low-income families and promoting affordable housing to low-income Latino tenants.
BASTA Announces Settlement of Arellano v. Koltai
Los Angeles County Superior Court
Case No. BC347852
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 13 — “Plaintiffs’ attorneys Daniel J. Bramzon and Albert Robles of BASTA, a Los Angeles based public benefit corporation specializing in tenants’ rights, has announced the settlement of a class action on behalf of a group of tenants who resided at the Vendome Apartment building located at 975 North Vendome Street in Los Angeles.
Class Action / Multi-party Litigation
Arellano, et al. v. Koltai, et al., LASC case no. BC347852
Represented tenants from a small apartment building in Silverlake made untenantable by fire a couple of days before Christmas 2005. The property was exempt from any rent control laws. BASTA obtained certification of a limited class, and, after nine months, settled the case at mediation for the tenants’ statutorily required relocation fees totaling approximately $193,500. Resolved in 2006.
Fighting for tenants’ rights
More than three years ago, Daniel J. Bramzon left big firm life to found the nonprofit BASTA, Inc., to fight for tenants’ rights.
Since then, he has witnessed the ugly side of landlord-tenant disputes.
“Our attorneys have been offered $50,000 bribes,” Bramzon told USC Law students Feb. 27. “Our attorneys have been imprisoned. Our attorneys have been assaulted while … examining properties.