One of San Francisco’s biggest landlords was sued Thursday by 68 tenants, who accused the property owner of harassing long-term, rent-control residents in an attempt to drive them from their homes so they could be replaced with new people paying higher rents.

The complaint against Veritas Investments paints a picture of a landlord that regularly disrupts the lives of tenants who are paying rents that are well below market rate. It describes elevators that sit broken for months. Water or electricity shut off without adequate warning. Noisy and dirty construction projects that drag on for years. Needed repairs in rent-controlled units ignored even as tenants are required to pay more for improvements in common areas that they call unnecessary.

“It’s clear that Veritas’ business plan is to clear out the long-term tenants,” said attorney Ken Greenstein, who is representing the tenants. “They would love to raise all rents to market so they can increase their profits.”

In the past, the company’s leadership has made no secret of its desire to attract young tech workers from out of town — people who are willing to pay premium prices for rent. Veritas has also allowed tenants in some of its buildings to offer their apartments for short-term rentals through Airbnb, with the landlord taking 10 percent of the income.

In a statement, Veritas Chief Operating Officer Justin Sato said the company has not been served yet and so had not seen the allegations.

“However, we dispute all claims that we are hostile or negligent toward our valued residents in any way,” he said. “Veritas is committed to repairing and restoring the buildings we acquire to meet high industry standards.”

He added that much of Veritas’ portfolio was old and in need of substantial work.

Among the neighborhoods where the 68 plaintiffs live are the Tenderloin, Noe Valley, Richmond District, Western Addition, Anza Vista, the Castro, North Beach and Nob Hill.

“Every one of the plaintiffs in this case has experienced some form of an attempted wrongful eviction that violates San Francisco rent ordinance’s prohibition against tenant harassment,” Greenstein said.

Veritas owns about 240 buildings across San Francisco that contain more than 5,000 apartments. Much of the portfolio was previously part of the Lembi family empire known as CitiApartments, a portfolio that collapsed during the great recession when the company was unable to refinance more than $1 billion in loans.

Veritas is led by Yat-Pang Au who started buying apartment buildings in 1996 but assembled most of the Veritas portfolio during the financial crisis when lenders were foreclosing on over-leveraged apartment portfolios across the city, including the one controlled by the Lembi family.

S.F. tenant harassment rules The tenant harassment section of San Francisco’s rent ordinance says landlords must not “interrupt, terminate or fail to provide housing services.” Tenant harassment can be described as a failure to “perform repairs and maintenance,” failure to complete repairs and maintenance, or an attempt to “influence a tenant to vacate a rental housing unit through fraud, intimidation or coercion.” The law also doesn’t allow landlords to offer payments in exchange for vacating a unit after a tenant has said they’re not interested in leaving.

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In 2013, an international investment firm invested “several hundred million” in Veritas, allowing the group to purchase even more buildings. By 2015 the Veritas portfolio was worth $2 billion, according to the company website.

A 2013 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a loan application on 44 buildings offers some insight into the company’s business model. It states that the 44 buildings have “approximately $23 million in potential rent that is currently not being captured” because of rent-control tenants. It also stated that it had managed to “turn over” — replace tenants — in 30.7 percent of the portfolio’s units in an 18-month period.

In a Pension Real Estate Association profile, first reported by San Francisco’s ABC-7 earlier this year, Au said Millennials were his target market and that “70 to 80 percent of Veritas renters are young techies. And more often than not, they are not from the San Francisco Bay Area and they’re moving into San Francisco.”

Tenant and plaintiff Madelyn McMillan, who lives at 240 St. Joseph Apartments in the Anza Vista neighborhood and pays $1,135 a month, has been in her unit for 25 years. The retired San Francisco Police Department employee said the building was well-maintained until Veritas bought it.

Now it’s “poorly lit, dirty, and they shut the water and power off all the time,” she said. “I’ve been stuck in the elevators several times. Sometimes they won’t go up. Sometimes they won’t go down.”

Another Veritas tenant, Doris Johnson, said her elevator at 320 Turk St. was broken for 63 days. Johnson is disabled and was forced to call a paramedic to be brought down the stairs. She pays $824 a month.

“As of this morning, we still have problems with the elevator,” she said Thursday “It’s not even with the floor.”

Sato defended the company.

“We invest in San Francisco’s aging housing stock, and many of the buildings we have purchased are in need of substantial infrastructure improvement, which we undertake with validly obtained permits, and all the speed allowed by San Francisco’s exacting building inspection process,” he said. “We are proud of our record as a landlord in San Francisco, and the data the city keeps about our work is contrary to these allegations. We look forward to refuting them.”

Elizabeth Menon, who has lived at 930 Leavenworth St. for 16 years, said construction noise has been a constant for four years, starting early in the morning and sometimes going until 10 p.m.

“I have had the apartment above and below and next to me all remodeled,” she said. “They broke through my walls and my kitchen ceiling.”

Menon, a former newspaper production manager who lives on disability, has been sent eviction notices and charged more than $200 in rent “pass-through increases” — costs the landlord is allowed by law to pass through to tenants — with another $100 increase coming. Those will bring her rent to more than $1,400. Market rate would likely be $3,500 or more.

“It has been clear from the beginning they have wanted me out,” she said. “I have one of the sweetest apartments in the building.”

J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@sfchronicle.com

Twitter: @sfjkdineen