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Los Angeles

Highland Park residents prepare for ‘rent strike’ in bid to prevent price hike

(credit: Wiki Commons)
(credit: Wiki Commons)

Residents of a Highland Park building which recently traded hands are gearing up for a “rent strike” in a bid to stop the new owners from dramatically raising rents, Southern California Pubic Radio reported.

More than 50 residents of the 60-unit Marmion Royal apartment building intend to stop paying their rent in order to entice their new landlords to the negotiating table. The building sold to its current owners, Skya Ventures and Gelt Inc., in May. They reportedly want to raise the rents on most of the units by $1,000.

Their plan is legal, since none of the units are rent-stabilized.

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But tenant activists say the rent hike in unfair to the building’s longtime residents, who’ve also recently had to put up with water shut-offs and power outages at the property.

“People just want to stay in their homes,” John Urquiza, a community organizer with the North East Los Angeles Alliance, told KPCC. “Denying capital and income to the owners is the only way we can bring them to the negotiating table.”

The landlords did not respond to KPCC’s requests for comment. Gelt Inc. recently acquired multiple rental properties in Santa Clarita, The Real Deal previously reported. [KPCC]