Tenants of flooded tower file 2nd suit against owner

The owner of a San Francisco apartment building flooded twice by burst water pipes has been hit with another lawsuit by displaced tenants, accusing management of violating safety laws, breaking promises to house them during repairs, illegally charging rent while the building was uninhabitable and refusing to let them re-enter to recover their property.

The upscale, glass-lined tower at 33 Tehama St., in the Transbay neighborhood, was evacuated June 3 after a pipe broke on the roof and sent water pouring down hallways of many floors. The owner, real estate developer Hines, said it would reopen in August, but another pipe burst Aug. 10, and the tenants have been unable to return while repairs continue.

More than 50 tenants sued Hines for damages in Superior Court last month, saying the company had known of plumbing problems and failed to repair them. The latest suit by 44 tenants accuses Hines of both mismanagement of its property and mistreatment of its residents.

After the June flood, “Hines denied (tenants) access to the building and their units” and forced them “to leave their homes on little to no notice and with nowhere to go,” leaving behind important possessions, documents, medications and even their pets, attorney Ryan Vlasak wrote in the suit. When they tried to return and retrieve their property, Vlasak said, they were treated “like trespassers” and told to leave.

And although both city and state laws forbid charging rent for housing that is “uninhabitable,” Vlasak said, the company told tenants it would provide housing assistance only if they continued to pay rent, “even when they had no access to the building, their units or property.” He said officials had notified Hines of safety violations, which also prohibit demands for rent.

Hines promised to keep the tenants housed in hotels during repairs, but hotel managers told many of them that they had no reservations or available rooms, the suit said. In other cases, Vlasak said, they were able to stay at a hotel “only later to be told they had to leave or pay the bill, because Hines did not make payment.”

And despite its commitment to house displaced tenants, Vlasak said, Hines cut off all benefits on Aug. 17, and barred them from entering the apartment building. The suit claims violations of state and local laws on building safety, rents and relocation benefits.

Hines denied all the accusations. The company said it has spent about $13 million for housing and other costs for the building’s more than 500 tenants, offering them either hotel accommodations or $300 per day in housing expenses, plus $125 a day for “food and incidentals,” until Aug. 17, when it ended payments “due to the extended repair and re-occupancy timeline.” It said it plans to reopen the building sometime in the first half of 2023.

“Since the water intrusion incident in June, our staff has worked around the clock to assist the displaced residents with emergency and temporary relocation options,” Marisa Monte, a Hines spokesperson, said in a statement Thursday. “We have provided our residents with temporary housing and funds for personal expenses. We have worked tirelessly to repair the building, engaging leading experts to identify and address the building’s mechanical problems.”

She said the company denies the allegations in the lawsuit.

In response, Vlasak said Thursday that Hines had evidently decided “it was more profitable to wrongfully evict and try to blame the tenants.”

He said some of the 44 plaintiffs have found other long-term housing while others are still in limbo. A couple of them have said they’d consider moving back to 33 Tehama when it reopens, the attorney said, but “the majority of them want nothing to do with the company.”