On April 12, 2021 Pam and Dean Bauer physically delivered a letter letting me know that my house was now owned by their corporation, All Commercial Investment Group, Inc. Prior to that, Pam Bauer had acted as rental manager for her father’s corporation, Los Angeles Homeowners Aid. So despite the fact that All Commercial Investment Group had only been the official owner of my rental house for 2+ years, Pam Bauer was my landlady for most of the 31 years that I rented the single family house in Altadena. In those 31 years I never once failed to pay my rent on time.

Almost every time I asked for a repair Pam raised my rent. One year I told her that only 1 of the 6 heaters in the 4 bedroom house worked & she told me that one heater was all we needed. Another time, the toilet got replaced & in so doing, the workers damaged the surrounding floor tiles and were not able to find matching tiles. They were deathly afraid to replace the entire floor. So the next day I went out & purchased enough floor tile for the entire bathroom and replaced the floor myself.

A month & a half after hand delivering their new ownership letter, on Memorial Day weekend 2021, the Bauer’s sent someone from the bank to inspect the house & for the next few weeks began the repairs required by the bank inspector. Once the loan was approved, all work that had not yet been completed, abruptly stopped.

Despite the cosmetic fixes, as had occurred periodically whenever it rained, the roof in the kitchen and living room leaked through the light socket and the power would go out in the kitchen, laundry room and outdoor lights. When this happened, we would hook up lamps and various power cords to keep the refrigerator and the microwave working. When it was all dry enough, my husband (75) would climb the roof to add more patches. The electricity in the bathroom was also a problem because every time someone was in the bathtub or cleaning the sink, we would get a shock.

Two months later, on July 28, 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic, I received a notice that my rent was being increased & that my deposit amount was also being increased by the difference between what I paid when I moved in, in 1992, to equal my new rental amount.

July 29, 2022, we received another rent raise. Let's not forget that the Covid-19 tenant protections were not to expire until March 31, 2023. This time I asked for those repairs. I received a call from Dean Bauer on September 19, 2022, telling me that they would take care of the repairs and also to give me forewarning that I would be receiving an official notice to vacate sometime after the first of the year, claiming that they wanted to give the house to their daughter. In order to move in a family member – the family member must be of the same age & income bracket as the persons they are replacing. We are low-income seniors & the daughter is a real estate agent in her 20’s.

We received our official notice to vacate on February 4, 2023. Our date to be out by was April 30, 2023. The notice claimed that they were withdrawing the residential real property from the rental market, also known as the Ellis Act. The Ellis Act is one of the most misused and abused protections by landlords to circumvent tenant protections. All Commercial Investment Group, Inc did not offer any relocation assistance.

On February 23, I sent All Commercial Investment Group a response to the notice to vacate, asking for a one year extension (based on our ages) and relocation assistance. I received a phone call from Dean Bauer on March 1, telling me that to grant us an extension would set them behind in terms of their plans and asked what the dollar amount would be for us to be out by April 30, 2023, offering a “Cash-for-Keys” agreement. I sent a written response and never heard from All Commercial Investment Group, Inc again. All Commercial Investment Group, Inc also neglected to file any of the required documentation associated with the Ellis Act with the LA County Department of Consumer & Business Affairs.

As April 30 approached, we had not yet found a place to move into, so I desperately mailed our May 2023 rent check well before the due date. On May 4, 2023, the May rent check cleared my bank account and a process server knocked on my door. Instead of the notice to “Get Out Immediately!” that I was expecting – All Commercial Investment Group Inc, had withdrawn their previous notice to vacate and were now raising the rent by 136%, beginning on September 1, 2023.

You might be wondering why I never reported any of those repairs that were so badly needed. Several years ago, I had called Pam at LA Homeowners Aid, but spoke with the person in charge of the corporation instead, Susan Mandala. She told me that if I called the office again she would have me out of my house so fast I wouldn’t know what hit me. From that moment on, I made it a point not to bother them unless it was absolutely unavoidable.

We have now vacated the single family house in Altadena that we rented for over 3 decades & it will soon be time for someone else to move in. Bear in mind that this is only the devastating experience of one long-term tenant, who are now senior citizens, in only one of the rental properties owned by All Commercial Investment Group, Inc. As of this writing – we have still not received any relocation assistance & All Commercial Investment Group, Inc has engaged the services of “famed” real-estate attorney Dennis Block – who assures them that they have committed no violations & that they owe us absolutely nothing. Obviously, this is not over with...