My name is Erin K. Baldwin and I am a tenant at UDR s property, Villa Venetia Apartment Homes. For the past 4 months UDR has done everything in its power to keep me quiet.

It has tried to evict me twice; towed away my car and then sold it in retaliation; relentlessly harassed me via court room tricks and maneuvers; demonstrated blatant intimidation tactics including obscene emails, lying on the phone, inhibiting my ability to find work and defend this action via shortened time constraints and no transportation; and continues to violate my civil and due process rights using its ongoing and personal relationship with Commissioner Richard E. Pacheco to remove any shred of evidence that I have that could destroy one of the largest apartment complex owners in the United States, UDR (United Dominion Realty.

I naively thought that if I fought my issues in Court and had all my ducks in a row and researched the law and prepared the right pleadings with the right causes of action that I would prevail.

I thought that Commissioner Richard E. Pacheco would be required to hear the facts on their merits and rule fairly without prejudice.

I thought UDR's leasing staff (starting with Karissa Harmon and Melissa Hurtado) would have to stand by their word.

I thought UDR's attorneys, Todd Brisco and Cynthia Poer were regulated by a professional code of conduct.

Boy was I wrong on all of it. There is no justice to be found in Court. The truth is completely irrelevant. UDR is a very objectionable company and by the end of this series of lessons, you'll hear the name UDR and shudder.

I'm going to tell you what I have been trying to tell Commissioner Pacheco since February 2009 and what he has ignored, denied, overruled and made fun of every step of the way.

I'm going to tell you all about UDR, its attorneys, its illegal, fraudulent, unconscionable and oppressive contracts, addenda, and rules and regulations.

I'm going to tell you the truth about landlord-tenant law and how our court system works (or doesn't work) for tenants.

Because despite what I've been through, I still believe in good and I still believe that the truth makes a difference.

I filed the proper paperwork today to request a transfer to another judge. I did everything according to the rules. Come to find out, the person who's going to decide whether I can get a transfer from Commissioner Richard E. Pacheco is Commissioner Richard E. Pacheco. And the guy that gets to decide whether I am entitled to a trial by a jury of my peers is Pacheco when he rules on a Motion for Summary Judgment a week from Friday. There is something gravely wrong with this picture.

Here is lesson #1. (There are 41 lessons and I hope that this information helps you.)



UDR, Inc. (United Dominion Realty), a real estate investment trust (REIT) owns, acquires, renovates, develops and manages apartment communities nationwide. They are a publicly-traded Maryland corporation (formed on May 2, 2003), and trades under the ticker NYSE:UDR. Their 52-week high on their stock was $27 per share, it's now below $10.

Its subsidiaries include two operating partnerships, Heritage Communities, L.P., and United Dominion Realty, L.P., both Delaware Limited Partnerships, and its principal place of business is 1745 Shea Center Drive, Suite 200, Highlands Ranch, Colorado 80129.

In October of 2004, UDR purchased Vista Del Lago LLC (doing business in the State of California as Villa Venetia ) located at 2775 Mesa Verde Drive East, Costa Mesa, CA 92626 from Essex Property Trust, Inc., for the aggregate amount of $95 million.

See: http://www.essexproperties.com/press.html'pr_id=235

At the time of purchase, this was the legal name and the DBA as stated at the Orange County Recorder's Office:

Registration Number: 20016874757
Business Name: Villa Venetia
Business Owner: Vista Del Lago LLC
File Date: 08/20/2001
Expiration Date: 08/20/2006

Prior to UDR's acquisition of the property, all Residential Lease Agreements were contracted using the name, Vista Del Lago, LLC (doing business as Villa Venetia). Very good; just as it should be.

UDR purchased the property under its operating partnership, United Dominion Realty, L.P. (doing business as UDR Villa Venetia Apartments L.P.).

See: http://kepler.sos.ca.gov/corpdata/ShowLpllcAllList'QueryLpllcNumber=200427800034

As such, after the acquisition, all Residential Lease Agreements should have been contracted using the name UDR Villa Venetia Apartments, L.P. (doing business as Villa Venetia Apartment Homes).

Post-acquisition, the legal name and the DBA as stated at the Orange County Recorder's Office was:

Registration Number: 20066092178
Business Name: Villa Venetia Apartment Homes
Business Owner: UDR Villa Venetia Apartments, L.P.
File Date: 11/07/2006
Expiration Date: 11/07/2011

However, all Residential Lease Agreements entered into at this apartment complex since 2004 have been contracted using the name "Villa Venetia," a name that belongs exclusively to the previous owner, not UDR, and has absolutely nothing to do with UDR and specifically does not define their ownership.

The first paragraph of the Residential Lease Agreement has and continues to state:
"This Residential Lease Agreement (hereinafter "Agreement" or "Lease") is entered into between Villa Venetia (hereinafter "Owner" or "Landlord") and the following individuals, jointly and severally (hereinafter collectively "Residents.")

There is no mention anywhere on the Lease Agreement of UDR's legal business name or legal owner's name for this property. And at the bottom of each page is a footnote that reads, "CA Version 2008," so its been updated plenty since the 2004 purchase.

Since the acquisition of this apartment complex in October of 2004, UDR has fraudulently and intentionally used the fictitious business name of the previous owner, Vista Del Lago, LLC, to contract with tenants to obtain and sustain a legal advantage over its tenants.

If a tenant doesn't have the correct legal name of its Landlord on their Residential Lease Agreement, how can they file an action against them' They can't.

AND

As if that wasn't bad enough, the fictitious business name, "Villa Venetia," expired on August 20, 2006. (See the previous owner's County Recorder's information above.)

The name not only doesn't belong to UDR, but it's no longer even a valid legal entity! So, UDR is contracting with tenants using a name that doesn't belong to them, is expired, has nothing to do with their ownership, and is a non-existent legal entity. Very convenient for them.

UDR has had 5 years to change their Residential Lease Agreement to reflect the proper name, so why do you think they don't'

So they won't get sued. The only time a tenant finds out the legal name of the apartment complex is if UDR sues them! And sure enough, its right smack on the front of the Summons. That's how UDR does business.

AND

Wait .. there's more!

Check out this link to their corporate record again. Note that there is also no address provided for the Agent for Service of Process as required by law.

See: http://kepler.sos.ca.gov/corpdata/ShowLpllcAllList'QueryLpllcNumber=200427800034

But UDR has no problem including the address for the Agent for Service of Process on its other California DBAs:

UDR Western Residential, Inc.
See: http://kepler.sos.ca.gov/corpdata/ShowAllList'QueryCorpNumber=C3094507

UDR Developers, Inc.
See: http://kepler.sos.ca.gov/corpdata/ShowAllList'QueryCorpNumber=C2554763

Let's just say you're a tenant at Villa Venetia Apartments, L.P. and you're actually fortunate enough to figure out the legal name of the apartment complex and you go to the Secretary of State website to find the proper place to serve your legal document.

Guess what' You still can't serve a Complaint because UDR doesn't give you the address where to serve it.

Do you know why they do this' Because they want to make it so difficult for a tenant to file suit against them that they just give up. (Until they met me.)

Do you think this is an accident on UDR's part' Woops, we forgot to follow the law' No way.

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST ...

According to California Civil Code section 1962 (A)(1)(b), UDR must include on the face of the Residential Lease Agreement, the name, address and telephone number of:

"An owner of the premises or a person who is authorized to act for and on behalf of the owner for the purpose of service of process and for the purpose of receiving and receipting for all notices and demands."

The UDR Residential Lease Agreement clearly states that the On-site Leasing Staff IS NOT allowed to take service of process, but it doesn't say who is' Why not' I think by now you know.

So, to sum up, if you live at 2775 Mesa Verde Drive East, Costa Mesa, California 92626 and your contract states that "Villa Venetia" is the Landlord/Owner,then what you have is an invalid contract.

This constitutes a cause of action for fraud (intentional misrepresentation, concealment and unilateral mistake of fact) as well as the fact that it voids the contract ab initio (which means from the beginning).

In order for a contract to be valid the parties must be properly defined. Villa Venetia is a non-existent legal entity, therefore it cannot be used to describe "Owner/Landlord" at this property. UDR had no legal right to use that name.

This set of facts I just described were pointed out to Commissioner Richard E. Pacheco in FOUR different legal documents on FOUR separate occasions in FOUR different ways and FOUR times in a row, he denied, overruled, chastised and completely ignored them.

At this point I am so angry, that they're going to have throw me in jail before they're going to stop me from writing the other 40 lessons of the dirty little secrets UDR doesn't want you to know. By the time I'm finished with them, they won't have a business in Orange County.

Stay tuned for Lesson #2: How UDR's attorneys, Todd Brisco and Cynthia Poer, falsified court documents during these proceedings and got away with it.

Erin K. Baldwin
TENANT ADVOCATES OF CALIFORNIA
(Formerly Tenant Advocates of Orange County)
714-617-4703 - Call me if I can help.
http://tenantadvocatesoforangecounty.wordpress.com
octenanthelp@aol.com

User Responses
From: badbizfinder	Date: 05/28/2009
Landlord, UDR, is in Big Trouble Consumer Warning for Orange County Renters: Landlord, UDR, is in Big Trouble May 27, 2009 badbizfinder 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 Hagman 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/
From: sleepsurveyor	Date: 07/17/2009
I experienced things that made me break my lease - I felt it was unsafe to live there. I need to speak to Erin - and left my info at the bad biz finder email address. This place is horrible - illegal, immoral, and unsafe.
From: Anonymous	Date: 08/08/2009
WOW.... I'm simply shocked at learninga all of this. My prayers go out to all of the badly treated tenants.

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