“She won’t speak to me in English”

One of the first things we asked him is why he hasn’t been responding to Patricia’s recent texts and phone calls. Tyler said they’ve spoken many times.

Lydia: You guys have talked on the phone?

Tyler: Uhh she won’t speak to me in English.

Yea Tyler, she doesn’t speak English. Why won’t you speak to her in Spanish? (We also offered to provide interpretation for future interactions.)

“[I’ll text her back] right away” — LIES

Tyler told us multiple times he would respond immediately if Patricia texted him in the next few days. Turns out he lied to our faces. Patricia has tried many times since this conversation to get in touch with him, and he won’t return her texts or calls.

Lydia: If she texts you, you’ll respond like within…

Tyler: Right away.

Lydia: Same day?

Tyler: Sure.

Tyler’s phone number is at the bottom of this article. Give him a call.

“That’s a total bummer”

Jacob: Does it bother you that she has nowhere to go, that she has a son with autism whose treatment is at UCLA, and if they have to leave, they’ll lose access to that?

Tyler: Yea that’s a total bummer.

Yea Tyler, it is a total bummer. I guess, in his own way, this was an expression of empathy? Don’t ask us how landlords’ brains work.

“Situations I can’t get involved in”

He followed up the “total bummer” line with this gem.

Tyler: But, honestly, there’s a lot of situations out there in the world, and I can’t get involved in subsidizing everyone. … Her circumstance is her circumstance, it’s not my circumstance.

Tyler, you are literally the reason this is happening. YOU ARE THE SITUATION. You are involved. This is your circumstance.

Mello Act? “Never heard of it”

We’ve written about, and tried to explain to Tyler many times, how Patricia’s home is protected by this special law called the Mello Act, designed to protect affordable housing in coastal zones. Therefore, it’s likely that Tyler won’t actually be able to use the property for what he wants (which is unclear), because he would have to ensure two affordable units remain on the property.

Lydia: Do you know about the Mello Act?

Tyler: Never heard of it.

Lydia: Since you own a building that has affordable housing, it’s gonna be really hard for you to get rid of the affordable housing units …

Tyler (cutting her off): Yea I don’t want housing. I’m not going to rent it to anybody.

Lydia: Ok, listen for just one second … [explains Mello Act again]

It’s like talking to a brick wall with him.

Accidentally a landlord

This is maybe my favorite. Somehow, I’ve never had this problem myself.

Jacob: If you can’t do what you want to do with it anyways, shouldn’t you let the family stay in their home until you figure it out?

Tyler: Being a landlord in California is very hard and very expensive and I have zero business being a landlord.

Lydia: So why did you buy a building with tenants in it?

Tyler: Because I don’t want to be a landlord…

Lydia: I just feel like if I didn’t want to be a landlord, I wouldn’t buy a building with rental units. (laughter)

Tyler: New to this, not a landlord, don’t want to be a landlord.

Poor guy :(

Does he know how long a year is?

Due to her son’s medical condition, Patricia requested and was granted one year between when Tyler first filed the Ellis-Act eviction (evicting someone from a rent-controlled home), and when she has to leave her home. Tyler has trouble understanding how this works.

Tyler: I can’t figure out what I want to do [with the property] because I can’t figure out how long this process takes.

Lydia: The Ellis Act takes a year — what do you mean?

Tyler: Well I’m currently 7 months in, and there doesn’t look like there’s an end in sight.

Lydia: Well it takes 12 months, because that’s how many months are in a year. (laughter)

“My phone number is all over the internet”—well it is now

We asked for Tyler’s phone number just to make sure Patricia was calling the right number. We were pretty confident she was, but couldn’t confirm this information online.

Jacob: Do you think I could get your phone number?

Tyler: It’s all over the internet, it’s not very hard to find.

Well, now he’s right. Feel free to give Tyler a call (or text) and *politely* ask that he rescind the eviction of Patricia Sanchez!