UDR is In Trouble

UDR is in trouble ... Good evening, We thought you might be interested in this information as you have reported on UDR Inc. in the past and it represents an update to our previous post. We have merged with a large consumer rights activist, Bad Biz Finder. Consumer Warning for Orange County Renters: Landlord, UDR, is in Big Trouble We announced on Saturday that we merged with a tenant rights advocacy group in San Diego, California. Here is our first official post on behalf of California renters. We’re proud to be able to bring news to consumers who have possibly lost their home to foreclosure and are now in the rental market as well as support the renter population in California. We just received this report from our partner about a crisis of mammoth proportion surrounding a California landlord called UDR. UDR, Inc. is a publicly-traded (NYSE:UDR) real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns, acquires, renovates, develops and manages apartment communities nationwide and is located at 1745 Shea Center Drive, Suite 200, Highlands Ranch, Colorado 80129. It is currently a major landlord in Orange County and almost 15% of its annual revenue comes from these 14 Orange County, California rental properties: Arboretum at Lake Forest: Lake Forest, California Coronado at Newport North: Newport Beach, California Coronado at Newport South: Newport Beach, California Foxborough: Orange, California Harbor at Mesa Verde: Costa Mesa, California Huntington Villas: Huntington Beach, California Huntington Vistas: Huntington Beach, California Missions at Back Bay: Costa Mesa, California Pacific Palms: Anaheim, California Pacific Shores: Huntington Beach, California Pine Brook Village: Costa Mesa, California Rosebeach: La Mirada, California Villa Venetia: Costa Mesa, California. It is being reported that this landlord is using expired DBAs and false names to contract with its tenants in order to sustain and obtain a legal advantage over its tenants and diminish the amount of tenant-based litigation. UDR also fails to comply with California Secretary of State requirements to maintain the address of an agent for service of process, nor does it provide its tenants this information in its leases. This neglect constitutes not only a violation of California state law, further inhibits tenants from filing a lawsuit, but violates those tenants' Constitutional right to file a grievance in a court of competent jurisdiction. This landlord, UDR, uses leases for its California properties that contain illegal exculpatory (“hold harmless”) and liquidated damages clauses in violation of state law and recent case law. Further, UDR is in violation of the Public Utilities Commission regulations that prohibits a business from earning a monetary profit on its property's ratio utility billing system. They call it “selling water without being a public utility.” Apparently, UDR forces its tenants to pay a pro-rated amount of the entire property’s utilities including its leasing offices, vacant apartments being repaired and cleaned, grounds landscaping water usage, hot water provided to laundry rooms (when tenants are already paying to use the washers and dryers), and pool water and heating of the pools. Our tenant rights partner has informed us that UDR's landlord-tenant attorneys in Orange County, Todd A. Brisco and Cynthia S. Poer, have been egregiously evicting tenants by the boatload and has quite the system down at Orange County Superior Court’s Harbor Justice Center, Department H-11, where Commissioner Richard E. Pacheco liberally disposes of cases up to twenty a month. Brisco has also misrepresented his status as an officer of the court when claiming in a public forum that he was a judge when he was not. He and his wife, another attorney, Michelle Voigt-Brisco, took it upon themselves to rewrite the California Civil Code pertaining to Landlord-Tenant Law. They distributed this restatement of law in a California publication called The Apartment Journal to landlords, property managers and commercial and residential real estate developers. Brisco claims that three California senators, Alan Lowenthal, Lou Correa, and Rod Wright as well as Assemblyman Hagan contributed to this restatement of law. Every one of them denies such involvement. The restatement generally amounts to a "cheat sheet" for landlords to help them easily and without legal detection defraud its tenants. That in itself is a travesty and should be prosecuted. UDR has managed to get away with all of the above for years since it purchased the 14 apartment properties during 2003-2004 from Essex Trust. Folks, be very careful. We’re going to start reviewing the UDR lease for you as well as taking a good luck at each property. We welcome comments from current tenants as well as tenants that have left these properties so that we can post a well-rounded account of this California landlord. Also, if UDR would like to comment, we would be happy to post a rebuttal from Colorado. Bad Biz Finder http://badbizfinder.wordpress.com/2009/05/27/consumer-warning-for-orange-county-renters-landlord-udr-is-in-big-trouble/