Student says SLO apartments are unsafe. Now he’s suing in a possible class-action case
A Cal Poly student has filed a lawsuit against his landlord on behalf of hundreds of fellow tenants, claiming their San Luis Obispo apartment complex is substandard, unpermitted and unsafe.
Cal Poly student Cameron Geehr filed the lawsuit on Nov. 27 in San Luis Obispo Superior Court over the conditions of the units at The SLO apartment complex at 1050 Foothill Blvd., which caters mostly to Cal Poly and Cuesta student tenants.
Geehr seeks to have the complex’s buildings fixed as soon as possible and the tenants’ rent money returned up until the point when the housing complies with city code.
The property, formerly called Stenner Glen, has been issued notices of violation for noncompliance with city code under San Luis Obispo’s housing policies.
The lawsuit against Woodland Hills-based property owner Home Sweet Home LLC and Houston-based property manager Asset Campus Housing was filed as a class-action complaint, meaning the lawsuit represents Geehr and will seek to include tenants in the complex’s 13 buildings.
A lawsuit represents one side of a case. Representatives from Home Sweet Home and Asset Campus Housing didn’t respond to The Tribune’s request for comment Monday.
Joseph A. Ferrentino, the plaintiff’s lawyer, said tenants have cited a number of problems including broken showers, power outages and overflowing toilets.
In addition, firewalls weren’t completed, putting students at greater risk of a rapidly spreading fire; walls were demolished and rearranged to make room for more rentable beds, the lawsuit claims.
“The buildings are clearly not up to code,” Ferrentino said. “We want to get the building up to code and the students reimbursed for their rent. The sooner they act, the better it is for everyone.”
The SLO’s 13 buildings were remodeled this summer without proper permitting, according to city officials.
In May, Geehr entered into a one-year lease, from Sept. 9 through Aug. 31, paying $1,079 monthly for a studio unit. But he was unaware and not informed of the “illegal, unsafe, and unpermitted modifications” between the time he signed the lease and when he moved in, according to the lawsuit.
The city issued a stop-work order on the property’s new construction on July 24, initially requiring only permitting on a single building, according to Community Development Director Michael Codron. To comply, the contractors then submitted plans for that building on July 31.
During inspection, however, it was discovered that the remaining apartment buildings on the property had been completed with the same work that had been reported in July.
Ferrentino said his Newport Beach firm will need to research the range of rental prices and living situations of other tenants.
“Students make plans for their housing before they leave for the summer,” Ferrentino said. “My understanding is that when they arrived a few days before school, they saw conditions of units. With a tight rental market in San Luis Obispo and school about to start, they had nowhere else to go.”
In an October interview with The Tribune, Thomas Pattenaude, an asset manager with Home Sweet Home, said the owner has a “very good relationship” with the city and will work to permit the complex.
Pattenaude expected the corrective work to take about six months.
Home Sweet Home bought the complex about a year ago, and Pattenaude said the buildings, constructed in the 1960s, have gone from “bad shape to good shape.”
This story was originally published December 4, 2017 at 6:16 PM with the headline "Student says SLO apartments are unsafe. Now he’s suing in a possible class-action case."