Real Estate Lawyer
@SinaiLawFirm
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LA based eviction trial lawyer. Creating value for clients.
Joined May 2012
Eviction Horror Story. You think the eviction for the AirBnB Tenant from Hell was bad?. All information in this post is 100% real, public information, and posted with client consent and encouragement. This is a story about the worst case of a 'professional tenant' I came
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I just used my amazon app instead of going to urgent care to get medical help. Took me less than 20 minutes to see a NP and get diagnosed. She prescribed what I needed and I was on my way to the pharmacy. No insurance, no waiting in line. $49 total cost. 10/10 experience.
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On Tuesday the city of Santa Monica approved a 122 unit affordable housing development and homeless supportive housing at a cost of $1,006,843 per unit ($122,834,924 total). Located 4 blocks from the beach (1318 4th street).
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@yashar the long lasting tradition of relatable pictures of the candidates that would be great if they showed that side during the campaign but didn't.
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@serraotweets this is actually an important point. you can search civil cases you can find records in court websites and 3rd party aggregators. most cases settle - over 99%. And in most settlements - the tenant vacates and the landlord agrees to seal the record, so the eviction never shows up.
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$90,000 car parked under a rent controlled building.
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In the past 6 months I've had clients who got letters from their local city attorney, rent control board, housing division, alleging 'violations'. Here is how the conversation goes each and every time:. "I am the attorney representing the landlord, I reviewed the letter. Can I.
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Friendly reminder . Unless required by law, you don't have to give a reason of why a tenant didn't qualify for housing. There's only downside and zero upside for giving a reason. And if anyone asks if you accept section 8, the answer is always "Yes".
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@naval Let’s also ban academic debt. Let the universities finance the degrees themselves if they think it’s worth the money. Let merit rule!.
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In 2020 we had 2.75% rates and homes were 30% cheaper compared to today. And nobody really believed at the time it was affordable to buy a home.
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4 more calls this week from buyers who did not realize they signed an exclusive buyer representation agreement while submitting an offer. buyers don't want to work with the agent anymore, but the agent/broker won't release them.
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A call I get once a week:. "My landlord is harassing me, and I would like to sue". "Can you tell me the worst thing the landlord did to harass you?". "Landlord keeps posting eviction notices on my door and threatening to evict me". "Did you pay the rent?". "No".
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We are really going to try everything, including collective punishment for all residents, before prosecuting criminals. ok.
The city of Santa Monica is considering implementing a beach curfew following several recent late-night crimes.
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I’m in my first waymo ride right now, very cool and futuristic. But why does it cost so much? It’s the same price as an Uber. Wasn’t the whole point reducing labor costs?. Why the price is the same with no driver? What am I missing.
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This week I wrapped up my favorite eviction of 2024 with possession to my clients. High-end home in a very expensive zip code. We already collected more than $225,000 in unpaid rent, interest, costs, and attorney’s fees from the tenants. Here are some of the things that helped.
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Santa Monica City Council is set to give tenants in evictions up to $20k in legal fees to win the case or move-out costs. $7m is allocated from you guessed it. Measure GS revenue.
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@yashar Any time I see a split screen of who is on the show I think to myself “there’s no way to top this combo, it’s the worst compilation of guests on one segment”. And pierce continuous to prove me wrong.
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Hate on LA/West Hollywood/Santa Monica rent control properties all you want. Call it insane/unjust/whatever. The opportunity:. Old tenant pays $2700/m. My office is hired to evict (3 lawsuits, high risk eviction). We won. New rent - $11,500 per month.
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@jonfavs You can't argue that 'democracy is on the ballot' while trying to push out the democratically elected nominee for president just because his polls are not good enough. It's a good argument.
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@PaulSkallas Cheap housing, basic food is subsidized, public transportation. No incentives for greatness. Can just coast through life.
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LA was unaffordable so we: .Passed rent control.Then a moratorium on evictions.Then no rent increases.Now straight up cash payments $$$. Have we solved housing affordability? Have we solved homelessness? At point do we admit this is not working?. The city is creating a second.
The residents in SM and LA in general overwhelming voted for safety in 2024. 2026 will be the same - we need challengers in SM/LA who can communicate effectively to the voters why it’s better to chose candidates who prioritize children safety over needle distribution in our parks.
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This is the language of the new anti-squatter law in Florida, signed by Gov. DeSantis. If I am reading this correctly, the sheriff makes a factual determination, not the court, when evicting an 'unauthorized person'. There is no ability for the unauthorized occupant to respond
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One letter from the city attorney's office claimed that I personally violated a *court order*. When I asked the city attorney if he bothered to check THE PUBLIC COURT RECORD before wasting my client's time and mine he said "no, I am just following our procedure since the tenant.
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I was paying the parking meter when I hear someone yelling at me "Hey asshole!". I looked up and it's a tenant I evicted twice, from 2 different clients. Wearing $600 earphones by the way.
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Opposing counsel with aol email address. Gonna have to bring my A game on this one.
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Squatter discourse is out of control . Two calls today from frightened landlords asking “how can you protect me from squatting?”. A: With a good lock and cameras. “No I mean when a tenant refuses to leave”. A: That’s not a squatter.
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A large client of mine got an unsolicited offer to buy one of his 25 properties. Offer came in at $5.5m, slightly above the market value. “I’m only selling for $7m, tell them that’s what I want”. I told him it will probably drive them away. “I don’t care. I don’t need to sell.
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Am I planning to buy a house any time soon? No. Am I checking Zillow every other day to see what’s available? Yes.
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There is an undeniable realty in the LA housing market right now:. Median home price - $972,221.Yearly cost to own median LA home - $74,556 (mortgage+taxes+ins).Income necessary to afford median home - $266,271.43.Median LA HH income - $76,244.
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Buyer: “I want a home with the aesthetics of a parking lot bathroom from the 80s. $5m budget”. Agent: “you’re not going to believe this”
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The biggest indicator of a VDT ("Very Difficult Tenant") based on 14 years of eviction experience:. Tenant has a history of litigation - as either defendant or plaintiff. It's the highest common factor in all of my bitterly contested cases.
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@yashar Something I have not heard anyone mention is there’s probably a significant number of voters who are going to show up to the voting booth and be very confused when they don’t see Joe Biden on the ballot.
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I can confirm this is happening more and more. Getting a lot of these requests. From buyers looking to sue and sellers getting mediation demands.
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@KPRunion why does a fiduciary relationship needs to be in fine print?. That's the point - you are signing away exclusivity for 180 days that should be in big bold letters, and with no confusion.
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This is how a house looks after the tenants vacated. I represented the landlord in a residential eviction in LB. No rent for 2.5 years. It appears that the tenants subleased rooms to randoms for profit. and rented backyard space to a homeless man who lived in a tent
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@ronnotel great question. extreme vetting of prospective tenants (credit-bank statements-job, in that order). be aware of what is happening on your property.
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@DavidSacks @BillAckman David - I agree with you and bill. But can you describe a reasonable scenario in which the fed/fdic should not step in and save depositors? . When do we NOT bail out a bank? . If the answer is never - what’s the point of having fdic insurance? Let’s just insure everything 100%.
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Mold testing is a crazy business . Don’t hear people talking about it. No license required. Easy to convert leads. Competition sucks.
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@saintjuicyjane The illegal occupant removed a significant amount of the original hardwood floor and then changed it to epoxy flooring in the bedrooms. she did the work herself. we estimate the damage to the unit at around $40,000+.
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Young lawyers and law students in LA:. If you get into landlord-tenant and eviction practice right now, you WILL outpace biglaw income starting year 2. The opportunity is unmatched right now.
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Only 5 years after coming to the US, I was able to attend a top50 law school, with people much smarter than me, mostly because of my LSAT score. LSAT is an amazing equalizer for disadvantaged/immigrant students. If you want more diversity - rely on the LSAT more, not less.
Breaking: An American Bar Association panel has voted to drop a requirement that law school applicants take the LSAT or another standardized admissions test
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My post yesterday ruffled feathers. Kate doesn’t believe in evictions. She is saying my client who was threatened by a drunk, drugged out tenant outside their door to kill her entire family and kids, should stay there. Pathetic.
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I love watching the videos of the dude who sold everything to sail around the world because he and I are exactly the same. We both doing what we love and finding happiness in the work. He is sailing around the world and I evict people.
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You can buy a gorgeous 4bed house in LA right now, sitting on 1/3 acre of the most expensive land in north America, and have LeBron James as your neighbor for $5m. Seems low.
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@coldhealing You would have enjoyed SF around 2010.Best city on the west coast .Sad to see it now and what it has become.
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@KFILE It’s misleading to say that. He didn’t even try!! . It would be always hard to codify roe in the senate and house but he has 60 votes in the dem caucus and there was no vote, no bill introduced, no push from the president. So if you want to say that if he tried he would most.
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@moseskagan What do they think will happen if we house every person in thr city? Should we do the same for the next 4000 transients? 40000?.
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@KFILE no brainer for her to run in 2028. she needs better people around her, and let her true self shine. Take some risky positions, stand firm on those issues.
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38 days apart in Santa Monica:. Attempted child kidnapping on Maple street (8 years old). Child kidnapped to a nearby drug motel (4 years old). Both times - homeless drug users. How many children need to be kidnapped until our elected officials do something? Vote on 11/5!.
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Update - "The saga continues". The legal battle for this unit is still ongoing. Since this post, the illegal tenant filed 4(!) additional motions to reverse the judgment. One of the motions was over 200 pages long. All were denied by the judge. Through investigation, turns out.
Eviction Horror Story. You think the eviction for the AirBnB Tenant from Hell was bad?. All information in this post is 100% real, public information, and posted with client consent and encouragement. This is a story about the worst case of a 'professional tenant' I came
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I know someone who wants to put his home for lease for the first time. He is willing to list it at December 2024 market price ($24,000 per month). Thanks to the stupid anti-gouging law, he can't charge more than $9,554 a month so he decided against it
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@UnseriousDude_ @injuryinvestor It was an unauthorized tenancy situation. A sublease that was not authorized by the landlord. State and local rules have a very expansive definition of a tenant. And as you can see from the post, the city attorney's office is very aggressive. Removing squatters by force has.
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I don't know who needs to hear this but there are no 'squatter rights' in California. I challenge you to find a single law that gives squatters any rights. If you are concerned over criminals squatting in your vacant property, fill out a Trespass Arrest Authorization, notarize.
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Service animals (and ESP) is the perfect example of how inclusivity destroyed a well intentioned law . 99% of time it's a backdoor way to have pets in places they should not be allowed into, like the supermarket or a pet-free building.
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The absurdity of LA Housing 🤡 . The city requires a client to fix up an old, empty, 4plex that's under REAP before giving a demo permit to build an ED1 project. Waste money, time, headache - to fix something that will be demolished in a few months.
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We are one housing bill away from dense walkable cities. Anyone will be able to afford a 1 bedroom condo while earning median income. It will solve all of your problems in life. There will be no homeless, no crime, and no poverty. Just one more housing bill.
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No matter how useless you feel in life, remember that it could be worse. At least you are not a retail store in a mix-use building in west LA.
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I bought some puts 45 minutes before the tariffs were announced on Wednesday. By Thursday morning $3k turned into $9k (I took the profit). By Friday afternoon $3k would have been $30k. And by the looks of it, it would have been $100k tomorrow 🫠.
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I know some personally with about $40m of real estate holdings. No debt.Within 2 miles radius.No property insurance (ever).All property held in their name, no llcs .No software .No property manager.No employees.$0 in capital improvements over 40 years. If I said everything I know.
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If the owner sells this home for the list price they will pay $231,178 in ULA taxes. The owner can reduce the asking price by $45,000 and the ULA will be $23,175 - and make more money. Follow for more content like this
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Went to an open house 2 months ago (was excited to see it) and left feeling it was overpriced and full of problems. I get a call last week from the buyer who now wants to sue the seller for hiding defects and misrepresentation. (Agent represented both sides).
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I've had a great bait tweet in my drafts about how LAX is actually a good airport. But after I spent 3 hours dropping off family last night in LAX I deleted it. There's nothing worse than LAX. Nothing.
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If you used this notice in LA, the eviction will be dismissed via a demurrer, since it is defective. Here are all the defects in this notice that I could find:. 1. Missing address of property.2. Does not state tenant has 3 court days to pay.3. Does not state tenant has 3 court.
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Great moment of integrity in court today. A defendant that I evicted (and now waiting for a lockout) filed an emergency motion to stop the lockout. I called in to oppose the motion and explained to the judge that the tenant threatened to kill my client and his family (on video,.
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ULA promised $900m in city revenue by imposing a 'tiny' 5% tax on every property sold over $5m. There was a fancy UCLA study and everything. Since then, sales volume plummeted by 50%. Only $142m raised in 7 months.
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How is this making residents safer??. SF is cooked 💀
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@yashar And if anyone wants to make that argument for the dems, the last person in line should be Obama.
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Example: this is what you get when you perform a civil case search of a tenant we evicted. It's a screenshot of the courthouse computer. Eviction was extremely costly for the property owner. This is page 1 of 3 of the tenant's civil case history
The biggest indicator of a VDT ("Very Difficult Tenant") based on 14 years of eviction experience:. Tenant has a history of litigation - as either defendant or plaintiff. It's the highest common factor in all of my bitterly contested cases.
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It costs $1 to perform a name search in LA County court records. $1 to see if the name behind an application has an eviction record. $1 to find out if the seller who wants a leaseback is litigious. $1 to find out no history and sleep well at night.
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@shawngorham it's very odd since it's the same conduct and process across multiple different cities, which I found peculiar. And then I spoke with an admin and she told me "we have a county group chat, we know what's going on in other rent control cities".
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@NowThisIsNews1 This non profit, like others like it, offer pro-bono representation. She did not pay anything.
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100% of completed evictions this year ended with possession to the client. only 1 eviction resulted in payment to tenant to leave. More than 60% of the time, clients collected damages in addition to possession.
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I am reviewing a residential lease by yet another 'housing' startup. It's so bad. Rookie errors, uncapped attorney's fees, bad exemption language, breaks security deposit laws. How can I short every housing start up?.
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I’ve heard that LA country Sheriff is SIX MONTHS behind in eviction lockouts on some offices . Six months to get a lockout date. On top the eviction battle.
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SF city council dedicated the public’s time to demand a ceasefire 1000s of miles away with zero authority to enforce it. While the city has an active and flourishing open air drug market, going on 20 years strong, a housing crisis, and non stop crime. Stupid leaders.
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Starting in March 2024, Santa Monica will set new buyout minimums in tenant cash-for-keys agreements:. Single - $18,250.1BR - $25,150. 2BR - $34,950 . Compliance with cash-4-keys regulations also expands to AB1482 tenants. More changes coming to SM very soon. .
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In a perfect world housing providers will give the reason so the tenants can fix things. But our system incentives housing discrimination lawsuits and the list of why you can't reject an application grows each year.
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Can confirm. 2 calls this week from defendants who got 1-shotted by a text like that. Lawyer from Berkeley non profit. Unclear if it's an ADA type shakedown.
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Why the bar exam is necessary?. Here is a great example that I see everyday in my practice:. Evictions are expensive for landlords and tenants. They are hard too, so not many lawyers practice it. What happened?.
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I am willing to bet money $4,999,999 is one of the most common sale prices in city of LA. Repeal ULA.
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called opposing counsel to see if he is ready for trial next week, woke him up. It's 5 minutes before noon.
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Over $300k in earnest money deposits refunded to clients since beginning of the year. Most of them with contingencies fully removed.
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I have a jury trial scheduled in three days. I've been ready for three months. Going against 4th attorney on record for the tenant. He had 2 months to get ready. He is not ready for trial. He will ask for another (4th) delay of trial. Will there be any consequences?
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@JulieChangRE I think my brain is broken because this looks like it’s priced about $2m under market.
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