Complaint Review: L. Chapin Enterprises LLC - Santa Monica California

LANDLORD LOST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GREEDY LANDLORD MUST RETURN MOST OF THE DEPOSIT HE WRONGFULLY WITHHELD FROM ME HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA! TAKE THAT!

Wow Steve Chapin, "all our rights are reserved", is so scary, for you to write that even though that is IMPLIED, and nobody has to input those words into emails and everything else you attach it to, as though it is supposed to instill fear in us (I worked in law firms for 20 years). That is one of those things you learned from a lawyer friend, and have done it ever since even though it is laughable.

All people reading this...check out the pic or pics attached and let me know if after i hired a crew to clean...when hehem, the apartment was NOT cleaned when I moved in (oooohhh come up with a defense now Steve Chapin) did I leave the place a mess?

Do not rent from these people ever. You will regret it.

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This landlord has been sued over a dozen times. He is a dishonest man, period. He charged a $300.00 pet deposit, and then claims that is was "additional rent" just because. So in essence, one of his renters just owes him and his family of ripoffs $300.00 because well...they are them right? They are the Chapins, so they get extra money because of the name? He is a liar, he will pay, his family are all part of his lease, yet he tries to hide behind an LLC claiming nobody is a landlord!

So today, his sister, who has stepped in his shoes several times during his landlording, and is listed on the leases, tries to subserve me with a late complaint (a few days before the court date), waited until a month after I sued her to "claim her losses" and is...funny wait...claiming emotional distress and legal fees in a small claims action for ....wait hold on $7500 HAHAHAHA! This must be how they try and make money. Suing people that have paid them rent for two years, then they steal the deposit, then they try and cross-complain then with the money they have kept, buy properties in and around Santa Monica.

Stay far away from these people, professionally or personally. They will take your last dime, and then send you a bill for more.

Tristina Cole:

It would have been preferential to keep our dealings with one another professional; but you have wrongfully publically posted libelous and defamatory comments about our family, and sought to involve an entirely unrelated business. Simply put, your emotionally charged claims are not true.

You signed a lease, failed to live up to your promises under the agreement, and upon your vacation from the premises, left your unit in absolute flea infested filth.

These issues will be dealt with in court. All of our rights are reserved.

You're funny (to the person who commented on my report regarding MY experience with a pathetic landlord who ripped me off). Um, I absolutely know what a lease is and means since I um, run a business wherein I have a commercial lease on Lincoln Bd in Santa Monica, and uh since I was in the legal field as a paralegal for over 20 years. Thanks for your opinion however.

Every single landlord in my area was doing what they could for their tenants during the bust. Except the greedy onel above. My commercial landlord dropped the rent $1000 so that our business could stay in business. After renting the above unit for a year, and as the business and economy failed, I noticed the landlord had a unit for rent in my building for $1000 less than the $2700 unit I was in. I begged him that while my biz was not generating income, could i move into the cheaper unit?!!!!@!!!!!!!! He refused. I would have been able to live and feed my kid in a normal fashion instead of having to sell my deceased mother's and brother's belongings in order to pay the higher rent.

So thank you so much for your legal analysis on what a lease is, or a contract rather as I have drafted, executed and been involved in many. I have never been ripped off before like this guy did.

"the rent was overpriced for the area,  Steve Chapin would not let me sign a one year lease despite the craigslist ad I responded to, but forced me to enter into a two year lease."

   A lease is an agreement between yourself and the landlord that you'll pay a specified rent over a specified period of time.   If you think the rent is too high, you don't sign the lease.  If you think the term is too long, don't sign it.  You make no mention of how you were "forced" to sign this lease. 

"This landlord held me hostage in a $2700/month rental after the economy sunk. He would not  let me move into a cheaper unit that he had stating that he did not think he could rent mine in the economy the way it was."

  I don't think you understand what a lease is (see above).  "The economy" is not a valid excuse for getting out of any lease I've ever seen.    You're not doing yourself any favors here.  I don't know anything about the deposit, but the more you post here, the more it sounds like you don't know what you're talking about. 

As a follow up from my last update, the landlord and his attorneys are just relentless in their quest to try and scare me into retracting all of my opinions which have been stated about them? Do we live in The US or in some communistic country, where individuals are prohibited from speaking their mind? They are gonna sue a mother who they ripped off? They say I went too far...I can only see one thing I stated that I do not know for a fact so will retract it with this update. That is ... (drumroll) THE INCESTUOUS COMMENT. I do not know if the mother and son landlord team that make up L. Chapin Enterprises are at all incestuous and it was not meant to indicate they were. I just hate them so much, wish the absolute worst for them and have so much animosity for them, that it just slipped out. I asked ROR to remove the term, but they won't so, there you go, this is what they get. If they did not want to feel the reprecussions from their actions, they should have returned my deposit to me. Otherwise, if you are gonna play the game, then be prepared to feel it back. My shock is with their response. How do they think taking someone's needed funds in today's economy would not meet with a fight? If you are like me, we are sick of greedy landlords and that is all this case is about. This landlord held me hostage in a $2700/month rental after the economy sunk. He would not let me move into a cheaper unit that he had stating that he did not think he could rent mine in the economy the way it was. He tortured me when I could not feed my daughter because everything was going to his outrageous rent. The worst rental experience I have ever had.

I was contacted by the large multi-partner law firm hired by the report subjects to stronghold me into retracting all statements made by any of us complainers, and threatening us with lawsuits against us for speaking our minds. Since I am a mom who is expecting another baby, and was the one that the landlords felt it was cool to just withhold my $4550 security deposit which I left in good faith with them, and since it is being handled in small claims, I figure I will redo this post to contain the facts in a less-emotional way. L. Chapin Enterprises, LLC was the "legal" landlord on the lease for a property I rented in Santa Monica, CA. although Steve Chapin is the one I paid the rent to, and the one that handled all complaints emails repairs, and everything else (in fact, he told me I would get my deposit back minus the carpet cleaning fees and then someone withheld my deposit at the end) I was told by the retained lawyer that I better not refer to him as a landlord ?? Ok then. He is also the one that breached the lease on the company's end, but I suppose that will have to be a court-resolved issue. As far as the lease and the property, defects were not prompty remedied at all, deals were made and then retracted by the other side, the rent was overpriced for the area, Steve Chapin would not let me sign a one year lease despite the craigslist ad I responded to, but forced me to enter into a two year lease. He had me leave a very large deposit for which at the end of my two years, during the most difficult time in financial history for most people, they kept it all and sent me a bill for more. I have had to resort to suing them in small claims court for my deposit back. Also, I am filing another civil action against them for the breaches in our lease, ie Covenant of Quiet Enjoyment (implied) and Warrant of Habitability, etc. Personally, I do not feel it is a good idea to rent from this company, but if you do, rent at your own risk.