Cody Recker and Jessica Perez loved their Boyle Heights rental – Les Vruuds and everything. Lots of warts.
Plumbing broke, spraying the puddles of raw sewers on the ground. The soil and the foundations collapsed, inviting hordes of mouse and flea. The basement flooded 14 times, and there were so many leaks in the attic that the mushrooms germinated through a bedroom ceiling.
They made these allegations in a trial against their owner, invitation Homes. During the rental of a decade, the couple said they had pleaded with the company to solve the litany of problems. But after years of minimum naked patches carried out by what they support were license -free entrepreneurs, the house rubbed uninhabitable.
In 2023, Homes invitation recognized the damage and urged them to move, saying that reparations were necessary, said Recker. At the time, it allowed it expulsions of substantial renovations.
But the house has never been fixed. When the couple moved last March, the house was Listed for sale the same month.
“We were betrayed on the left and right,” said Recker.
The old house of Recker and Perez in Boyle Heights, which their owner sold instead of renovating.
(Cody Recker)
The invitation houses and his lawyer in the trial refused to comment on this article. They have not yet responded to the allegations of the trial.
The couple's complaint is one of the thousands of invitation houses, the largest unifamilial owner in the country. Last year, the real estate management company based in Dallas – which has or manages more than 100,000 houses in the United States and more than 11,000 in California – agreed to pay $ 3.7 million To set a price of price go to prices and $ 48 million To settle an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission on the so -called non -disclosed compensation costs, has embarrassed the security deposits and illegal explanations.
“It is really horrible how much the invitation houses have treated Recker and Perez,” said Joseph Tobener, a Lawyer for the rights of tenants representing the couple in the trial. “I have been doing this for 25 years and the conditions are as bad as I saw it.”
Tobener said that the situation is the direct result of housing corporatization, where large companies and investors buy as many unifamilial dwellings as possible in attempts to rent the houses.
After the 2008 housing crash, companies such as Blackstone Inc., which created invitation houses in 2012, began buying unified houses seized and converting them into rentals. The situation has become new extremes during the pandemic, when the hot housing market has become a food frenzy for investors; In the second quarter of 2021 only, the number of residential properties purchased by companies reached a summit of 67,943, According to Redfin.
“These companies do everything you need to report high profits to their investors” to the detriment of their tenants, “said Tobener.
Cody Recker and Jessica Perez had to store many of their personal effects in the garage of their rental house in Pasadena a year after being pushed to leave their rental house in Boyle Heights.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
The Trust of Recker and Perez, which should be heard by a jury in June 2026, launched an accusations in the owner of the company, in particular the negligence, the unjustified expulsion, the harassment of the tenants, the breach of contract and the unfair commercial practices.
When Recker moved into the house in 2014, everything looked great. Built in 1908, it aged but huge with six bedrooms and three bathrooms on two floors and 2,312 square feet.
When Perez moved into Recker in 2020, the house was still habitable, but the floods became a problem. Each time it was raining, the walls, the floors and the carpet would have soaked, creating a moldy stench, according to the trial. Recker used a boutique-vac to eliminate an average of 35 gallons of water from the basement each storm.
“We complained and put on work, but they would be suppressed in the tenant portal or postponed,” he said, echoing complaints in the trial.
In the coming years, Recker and Perez have noticed signs that the house moved, according to the trial: the kitchen floor flowed, the counters separated from the backsplash and the garage foundation was cracked.
The swamp -shaped conditions have brought marsh problems. The chips infested the house, biting them in their sleep and the rain flowed through the zona in the attic, Gerpant a group of mushrooms, said the trial.
After the rain sank into the attic of the house of Boyle Heights, the mushrooms germinated through the ceiling, according to a trial.
(Cody Recker)
After years of deterioration, Homes invitation sent an engineer to examine the property in October 2023. Two months later, they received a call from the company.
“This house is not sure, so we need you to move as soon as possible. The earliest will be best,” said an agent of the company, according to the trial.
When they asked if they could come back after the repairs, the agent said no, because the process could take six months or a year.
Recker and Perez did not know what to do. They were satisfied with their rent of $ 3,362, and the house was large enough to contain all the equipment required for their career in the film industry. But at that time, the place was practically collapsed.
During the next three months, the company called them every few days urging them to leave, said the trial.
“Every two days, I would receive an SMS or a call saying:” We need you now “, said Recker.
At that time, the history of the invitation houses would have changed. During a step -by -step procedure of the house, an agent of the company said: “Honestly, I have the feeling that they will sell it. There is no way to repair this”, according to the trial.
Tobener said that the invitation houses could have legally expelled the couple by depositing permanently to withdraw the market rental, but this would have harmed the resale value, as these restrictions would have been transmitted to the new owner. Instead, the company continued to exhort them from the premise of renovations, according to the trial.
On March 12, 2024, after months, the couple finally left. On March 31, he reached the market for $ 850,000 and sold two months later for $ 792,000.
“It was the icing on the top,” said Perez. “I will never rent them again.”
Tobener said the property is subject to the California holding ACT protection And the Just provoke the orderThis limits the reasons why owners can expel tenants. At the time, substantial renovations were just a cause of expulsion, but the house was never renovated.
“Instead of repairing anything, they listed it right away,” said Tobener. “This is where they made their greatest error.”
The Los An Municipal Council temporarily prohibit Expeuls based on renovation while the city explores permanent legislation to help tenants maintain their rental during renovations.
Recker and Perez have since moved to a two -bedroom house in Pasadena. It is cramped in relation to their place in Boyle Heights, but they are satisfied with their new owner, an elderly man who lives in the front house and always asks if there is something that must be repaired.
