Roaches crawling on walls, mold on bathroom ceilings – these are just some of the hundreds of complaints tenants have about some apartments and houses in Fresno. Many of those same tenants say their landlord is collecting rent, but he does nothing to fix the problems that include collapsing ceilings, leaky roofs and rats. Reporter Norma Yuriar has more on a five–month KMPH News investigation.
By Norma Yuriar
Fresno, Calif. (KMPH News) – A home on north Diana in Fresno is one of the latest properties purchased by the owner of JD Home Rentals.
Maria Velasquez says she pays $750 a month in rent.
Fresno County Records show John Hovannisian paid $33,706.00 for the home at a foreclosure auction in February.
KMPH News told the City of Fresno about the problems. An inspector agreed to meet us to look at some of them.
Inspector Esko Siipola took photos of a massive hole in the bathroom ceiling.
"Part of my role as an inspector is I'm going to immediately contact the owner and get them to send a crew out here to work on that," Siipola said.
JD Home Rentals Claims it was not aware its tenants were living in such dire conditions. A spokesperson told KMPH News the company didn't inspect the property before it bought it and rented it out.
It was unaware of the mold, the damaged ceiling and the cracked floor.
This is the latest Code Enforcement investigation involving the property management company.
Since the city of Fresno began keeping track of violations Code Enforcement has looked at more than one thousand tenant complaints – that's more than any other Fresno landlord.
"I think they need to be shut down because it's obvious after all of these years they are not going to fix anything," Lana Jones said. "I rented from them twice, I will never do it again because they won't fix anything, and they are roach infested. I had an apartment with them and my son got sick because there was something in the walls – the mold in the walls, they never fixed it."
JD Home Rentals is owned and operated by father–son John and David Hovannisian. It owns or manages 1,500 units in Fresno County.
"I don't think they have enough people to manage their properties," Siipola said.
Mike, his wife and three children live at one of the properties. He worries about the rats in his two–bedroom apartment.
"Yeah, they are kind of chunky," Mike said.
Sena Moore pays $475 a month for a two–bedroom apartment.
"It's nasty, but we can't afford [anything] else right now," Moore said.
Lana Jones says she paid JD Home Rentals $325 for a three bedroom apartment.
"I was in desperate need of somewhere to go," Jones said. "I didn't have to pay my entire deposit – they just wanted whatever I had."
And she paid cash so she doesn't have a receipt. Paying cash is not what Jonathan Ota recommends.
The attorney with Central California Legal Services says tenants need to create a paper trail, request receipts and make sure all requests are in writing.
"A lot of the responsibility does fall on the tenants," Ota said. "That's how a lot of these companies end up getting away with cheating people out of money or forced people to live in conditions people should not be forced to live in."
JD Home Rentals does business out of an office on east Belmont Avenue in Fresno.
We began our investigation in January. John or David Hovannisian did not return our calls.
I asked them or a company spokesperson six times for interviews. They didn't want to talk on camera.
According to Fresno County documents John Hovannisian lists a home inside a gated community in Visalia as his mailing address. We stopped by to talk to him but the security guard told us he wasn't home.
Although, the landlord won't talk to us. He is responding to requests by the city of Fresno.
City housing officials say JD Home Rentals just recently agreed to make changes and upgrade a handful of buildings including at an apartment complex in the Lowell neighborhood.
"Much of what we are trying to do with our department and the city is to work more closely with property owners – we want to develop a relationship so in the future for example we can make a phone call, they can meet us at the property and we can discuss what needs to be repaired versus sending notices," Siipola said.
As for Mrs. Velasquez and the massive hole in the bathroom ceiling? Code Enforcement forced the landlord to fix it.
The repairs were made after KMPH News asked the city of Fresno what it was doing to do about it. But there are still many more repairs to go.
"I called maintenance... they said we'll get to it," Mike said.
Code Enforcement says the only way it can force a landlord to fix things is to have tenants call and report a violation. Here's the number to Fresno City Code Enforcement: (559) 621–8400.
For information on the California tenant and landlord bill of rights and responsibilities go to... http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/landlordbook/catenant.pdf
