MANAGER OF SANTA MONICA APARTMENT BUILDING CONVICTED OF MULTIPLE COUNTS
OF TENANT HARASSMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: January 29, 2001
Contact: Eda Suh, Deputy City Attorney, Consumer Protection Unit, 458-8336
The victim, a tenant who has lived in the building since October 1996, claimed that he has been harassed by Farzam on an almost nightly basis. The tenant claimed that on the night of October 17, 2000, Farzam arrived at his apartment and stepped inside, unannounced and uninvited, and started to yell at the tenant, threatening to evict the him while raising his fist. The tenant claimed that Farzam then went to his car, which was parked below the victim’s windows, and began to loudly play his car stereo. The police arrived around 10:00 p.m, and arrested Farzam.
“This is just the type of abuse that the Tenant Harassment Ordinance was intended to prohibit,” said Deputy City Attorney Eda Suh. “Tenants in such situations should not feel helpless...especially where they feel their safety is at risk, they should immediately contact the police.” Farzam pled no contest to abusing his right of access, abusing the tenant with offensive words, and interfering with the tenant’s right to quiet use and enjoyment of his apartment. Farzam was sentenced to three years of probation, and ordered to do 160 hours of hard labor community service, complete a six-month anger management program, and to stay away from the tenant.
Santa Monica enacted the Tenant Harassment Ordinance in 1995 to protect tenants from harassment by landlords seeking to create vacancies to take advantage of a new statewide vacancy-decontrol law (the Costa Hawkins Act), under which rent-controlled apartment owners can ch
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