Oakland landlords given 40 days to correct ‘inhumane conditions’

A judge ordered the owners of a 30-unit Oakland apartment building at 1620 Fruitvale Ave. to fix the building within 40 days or face possible contempt of court charges. A judge ordered the owners of a 30-unit Oakland apartment building at 1620 Fruitvale Ave. to fix the building within 40 days or face possible contempt of court charges. Photo: 2016 Vital Imagery Ltd. Photo: 2016 Vital Imagery Ltd. Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Oakland landlords given 40 days to correct ‘inhumane conditions’ 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

One family slept on the kitchen floor to avoid a bedbug infestation. Another lived in an apartment with no working fire alarm, and a tenant and her 8-year-old daughter became aware a fire had broken out in the building only when smoke began to billow from the walls of their bathroom.

Those incidents appeared in court documents that detail harrowing conditions endured by the tenants of a 30-unit Oakland apartment building at 1620 Fruitvale Ave., whose owners have been ordered by a judge to fix the building within 40 days or face possible contempt of court charges.

Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker filed a request for relief with the Alameda County Superior Court this month and won last week when a judge issued an order against the landlords.

“It is critical that the City hold accountable landlords who violate tenants’ rights and turn a blind eye to inhumane conditions that persist at their properties,” Parker said in a news release.

The building is infested with cockroaches and bedbugs, lacks a functional fire alarm system in many of the units and has raw sewage problems, court documents say. Alameda County has assessed the value of the property at around $1 million.

Most of the tenants are predominantly Spanish-speaking families.

Since the building was purchased in 2007 by a group of landlords — Jad and Suad Jaber; Najeeb and Mary Christina Shihadeh; Daoud, Hala, Fahed and Haifa Salfiti; and 20 other people unnamed in court paperwork — it has been the subject of 20 complaints, according to city records.

The property, built in 1930, was dogged by problems even before its purchase by the current owners. City records show several complaints of failing plumbing, moldy walls, leaky ceilings, lead paint, roach infestations and a collapsed ceiling in the period from 1997 to 2003.

The landlords could face contempt charges and sanctions if they fail to fix the problems within 40 days, according to the court order.

The case is one of several lately being brought by the city of Oakland in an increased focus on improving livability for tenants and cracking down on practices of predatory landlords.

Oakland’s Tenant Protection Ordinance passed in November 2014, an effort to discourage landlords from creating a hostile environment to push out tenants and subsequently increase rents. At the time, Oakland’s Rent Adjustment Program office was receiving an average of 100 to 200 complaints of landlord harassment per month, according to the city.

“My clients intend on complying in making the adequate expenditures and fixes that are necessary regarding the building” said Jonathan Black of Weston Law Group PC, who represented the landlords.

Filipa A. Ioannou is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email fioannou@sfchronicle.com