310 Mildred Ave, Venice. Neighborhood Torture Nearing The End – City Lock Out Sept 10th

If this story doesn’t scare the bejezzus out of any landlord, I don’t know what will. The house at 310 Mildred Ave. in Venice was a cute one story single family home. Well, make that “was”. It was fixed up by the owner who finally decided to move south and make it into a rental. That was going fine until one tenant moved out and suggested a friend take over his lease. One year later at the hands of that tenant, the house is destroyed, and will be sold at auction on Tuesday September 4th. For the past year the tenant that picked up the lease stopped paying rent, supposedly made far less random herky-jerky payments, and started doing un-permitted work on the house. The very elderly owner being somewhat trusting had no idea what the tenant was doing. The neighbors however, lived the torture every day.

The latest crazy barrier made from the board-up materials used to close the holes cut to access the roof – and other illegal construction made to the home.

We started getting reports last year about the insanely loud music being pumped out of the property at all hours of the night. The many residents that live in an apartment complex right across the street and right behind the residence were in audio-jail. LAPD was called repeatedly and as soon as they would leave, the noise would crank up again. But it wasn’t just music. The tenant was systematically destroying the inside of the house. Ripping out drywall and fixtures. Pulling up the roofing and throwing it into the street, and spray painting over the street parking area in front of the house – verbally threatening people who tried to park there. The adjacent sidewalks and common areas of other properties became his dumping area. A permit was never sought for the things he was doing to the house, and the owner had no clue as to the extent of what was going on. Attempts to contact the owner were routed back to the tenant who kept her mail and never notified her of pending complaints.

The tenant stopped paying for utilities, and began stealing electricity and water from adjacent properties. There are currently charges pending against him by The City for theft of utility services. On two occasions “professional” rigging was dismantled that was drawing electrical power from local properties to service the house at 310 Mildred rigged by the occupant. The area tenants have complained tirelessly to LAPD about the occupant and his revolving door of parolees, local gang members and dealers stealing water. Video was provided again of him with a cart filling up jugs of water from the adjacent property at 4 a.m. just yesterday. Warnings from the owner, area residents, The City of LA and LAPD have not discouraged him from stealing at all, or ending his reign of terror towards neighbors.

The hole the tenant blew in the back of the house to sneak in and out of, then the board-up made by the owner on the right in an attempt to stop the crazy.

Locals saw marijuana plants being grown and drug dealing on the property and alerted LAPD. The house only had a front entrance, so to cut down on the obviousness of doing drug transactions at the front of the house, the tenant blew a hole in the rear of the house and fashioned a crazy sliding door around broken stucco so people could enter and exit through a rear alley. And then came the bio-dome…

Needless to say, not OSHA approved….

The list of atrocities committed by the tenant at this property are so numerous there are too many to list, but the most egregious was the structure he built on the roof. The roof, which is not rated or permitted to hold a structure became the landing pad for the “bio-dome”. A ramshackle plywood structure that LAPD removed 69 pot plants from and charged the occupant with cultivation. After the weed was removed, he began living in the bio-dome, powering lights and other electronics with a marine battery. Needing money, he posted ads in craigslist for room mates to rent out the lower rooms. Yes, the lower rooms with no running water or electricity. He described it as living in an “eco environment free of utilities by the beach”. One look at the inside of the house and especially the bathroom taken by crews sent in to inspect the property and you can see why the renters didn’t last more than a few days. The owner had the rear drug entrance/exit boarded up and the stairs to the roof removed for safety reasons, with a posting that the bio dome would be torn down as well. With no access and a warning not to go on the roof at ALL, the tenant cut a hole in the roof and put a step ladder going from the bathtub (which didn’t work anyway) to the roof to continue to live in the bio-dome. Even though it was posted that he must vacate the bio-dome, he didn’t. He left notes about being out of town and his child being ill in an attempt to defer the crews from working. Finally the bio-dome was demolished and the hole in the roof was boarded shut. That hasn’t stopped the insanity though. The tenant just busted through to the roof again, after being notified numerous times to never go on the roof – so he could build a water system to funnel down to the bathroom. He would fill a serious of 5 gallon jugs by stealing the water from nearby properties and pour them into a rooftop catch basin to drain down a pipe and into the bathroom, which is a horror show in itself.

After bouts of trying to reason with the occupant, the owner filed for eviction which is scheduled for Sept 6th, two days after the scheduled auction. The eviction will be transferred, but it won’t matter because the City of Los Angeles posted a mandatory vacate notice for September 10th. On the 10th The City of Los Angeles will post that the building MUST be vacated and nobody may live there until the mandatory repairs demanded by The City on November 10th be made. The Code Enforcement Bureau cited the “Bio-Dome” and other horrifying modifications made by the tenant as the reasons for the closure. Despite the posting by Code Enforcement and the owner – the tenant erected a solar panel and has a host of new occupants in the house. Although the auction is the 4th, eviction hearing is the 6th and City Code Enforcement eviction and lock-out is the 10th – the tenant shows no signs of intending to leave.

Note posted by the tenant on the day crews arrived to demolish the bio-dome. It didn’t work, but the request to turn on power and water was cute. He arrived as soon as crews left. Fibber.

Adding insult to injury for the poor owner/landlord, the occupant attempted to file a mechanics lien on the property in the amount of $250,000.00. Mechanics liens are a vehicle used by licensed contractors to attach to a property to ensure that they are paid for their work. In his description of the “work” he performed he described the un-permitted, unauthorized “bio-dome” as “added additonal 1000 sq ft of living space…” and “acted as handyman, general cleaning…”. The comedy in his delusion writes itself.  The problem for the tenant is that he is not a licensed contractor so he can’t file a lien for over $500. He also, as reported to us from an agent associated with the auction of the property – failed to properly give 30 day served notice of intent to work before the work began, he failed to have his filing notarized, he failed to properly serve the lien and he isn’t a licensed contractor. Despite this he has sent rounds of ranting, grandiose letters as if his fraudulent $250,000 attempt to attach to the property is some sort of cashiers check he has entitlement to when the property goes to auction. Luckily his behavior has been so completely unreasonable that the owner, mortgage lender, and auction service are all aware of his attempts to try and skirt the system and have terminated any efforts he may make to intimidate prospective buyers when the property goes to sale on September 4th. All with the cheering section of fed up neighbors that have lived with his midnight to 5 a.m. construction, fights, police raids, parolee arrests and nightmarish noise, and personal threats that have plagued the neighborhood since his arrival. With his attempt to scrim money out of the owner and prospective buyer extinguished – he has no choice but to be out – or he will be removed by Sept. 10th 2012.

Tenant on the roof funneling his stolen water into the house.

LAPD was called to the house again last night, twice. After being served with final notice to not go on the roof and that crews would be removing what was on the roof again, the tenant built this crazy barrier in the front to keep everyone out . It has been a long and tiresome bout for the surrounding tenants, but at least the final day – September 10th, 2012 – it will be ended for good.

Itemized list of what tenant listed in an attempt to file a quarter-million dollar mechanics lien on the home.

Above is what the tenant listed as the work he performed to justify the $250,000 mechanics lien he tried to file on the property. Below is a photo gallery of the inside of the home taken after he filed the lien. You be your own critic of his handywork.

And finally… from our original story posted here… good old tenant Nick had this to say:

You people are so full of shit its ridonkulous…I am the lord and master of my universe, not you petty little tyrants.  It is you who are here to serve me this is my domain.  I am the King of my Castle ladies and i say when its time to pack it up.  i am buying this house and because of the notice to vacate, they have to give me a permit to meet the conditions of the notice, no wonder why the word “fool” started in Venice.  Keep getting squeezed by Elly Nesis like the rats that you are for all your cheese.  Meanwhile, I will be compensated for my work and I will take care of my family and provide a safe, happy, comfortable home and trust me, it wont be next to you Wharf Curds.  I fart in your general direction.  Your Father was a Hamster and Your Mother smells of Eldeberries.  Now be gone with you miscreants, you pathetic imbeciles.  Go back to patting each other on backs for being yellow bellied pig nosed bushy eybrowed Purple Pelican Polly Wog Wrinkles on the backside of my buttox, dangling like a dingleberry, so i have to jump up and down several time to be sure you drop into the toilet for the flush and rinse.  OH yes, you do not know do you, I have figured out how to convert sea water into fresh kangen alkalized H30.  Keep paying the city with your cheese you rats, its not easy being cheesy…and dont try to be like me and beg your master for Solar Panels, he is not going to help you.  You will continue to be slaves to the system and have bonding experiences when you hear the allegory of the cave and try to kill the only one who escaped…alas it is you who are already dead, now why dont you go down to the ocean, jump in three time and come up twice you hamster hiding pillow biting pee stains, be gone!!!