Leases

Auto leasing deals abound these days, with offers that often seem too good to be true. How about a well-equipped Honda Accord for $250 a month with no down payment or any other drive-off fees? Or better yet, $199 a month for a Chevrolet Malibu? So, what's the catch? There isn't any if you know what you're getting into. There are always details. You need top-tier credit to qualify. You pay a penalty if you turn that Honda in with more than 36,000 miles. And the payment is not $250 a month because of that little matter of tax. It is more like $275, depending on where you live.

The phone jangles in the bright white-walled computer shop off Hillhurst Avenue, and Ariel Belkin picks it up. "Los FEE-lus Hi-Tech," he says. "This is Ariel. " After the call comes his confession. Photos: It's all in the name The 30-year-old tech whiz, who also plays guitar in a band, moved to Los Feliz from the Valley a year and a half ago. Back then, he resolved to pronounce his new neighborhood as Los Fey-LEASE. The Spanish pronunciation, he says, is the "the right way. " But pretty soon he caved to the weird stares and smug corrections from locals and switched to the more common anglicized pronunciation.

Circuit City Stores Inc. said it planned to break the leases for almost all the 155 stores it was closing this month. The Richmond, Va., company was scheduled to auction the leases today as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection proceedings. But too few bids came in to hold the auction, a spokesman said. The company had hoped to sell the leases to reduce its costs, help it get financing and aid its restructuring, it said in court documents.

Despite bitter attacks in recent weeks, the two candidates for mayor of Los Angeles grudgingly conceded in a debate Sunday night that their rival was (mostly) honest and not so different on many of the plans they have for leading the city. That didn't mean City Councilman Eric Garcetti and Controller Wendy Greuel didn't find plenty of opportunity for attacks on each other's trustworthiness and independence. But they also laid out records that they said made them most qualified to replace Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is leaving office June 30 after serving the maximum two terms.

Accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has agreed to move its downtown Los Angeles offices in a 15-year deal with landlord Brookfield Office Properties Inc. As part of its agreement to rent six floors -- about 135,000 square feet -- the firm will have its PwC logo attached to the top of the 53-story building at 601 S. Figueroa St. About 1,450 employees will move to the new offices in May from 350 S. Grand Ave. The new quarters will have less...

Car dealers have found a new way to profit from people with money trouble: leasing them hand-me-down vehicles. The deals are pitched to customers as the cheapest way to drive a used car off the lot, with the added benefit of an easy escape for those who can't keep up with the payments. Few customers are told about the advantages on the other side of the trade. Leases can allow dealerships to sidestep interest rate caps, and there are fewer financial disclosures rules than with a conventional car loan.

For anyone shopping on a tight budget, an ad that promises a new-car lease for $500 down and $199 a month sounds tempting. Few new cars are cheap enough to buy under those terms, even with zero-percent financing. Two advantages that leasing has over buying are that most leases require a smaller down payment, and the monthly payments usually are lower than on a loan for a comparably priced purchased vehicle. In the long run, however, leasing may be no cheaper. Edmunds.

His hands are like bronze mitts - cracked and weathered by labor, age and too much sun. But his touch is soft. He cups the branch of a willowy shrub and nods toward the hills for which it is named. "This is a Hollywood juniper," Tadashi Hamada says. He knows the breed well. An evergreen with twisted tufts, it is native to his birth country, Japan. This one is planted in front of his Mid-City home, where the paint peels and the stoop sags. Fishing a pair of clippers from his pocket, Hamada begins to prune.

A Corona del Mar podiatrist is struggling to get his foot in the door at a prestigious medical building complex in Newport Beach, complaining that the landlord is discriminating against his profession. Ivar Roth, 36, describes himself as "very conservative" and said he fits right into the traditional Newport Beach physician community. "I follow the rules," he said. "I don't make trouble."

Share Our Selves will be allowed to keep its dental clinic at the Rea Community Center at least until next January while the rest of the organization relocates, according to an agreement reached with the City Council this week. "That was a crucial point with us," said Jean Forbath, founder and executive director of SOS, which provides emergency food, clothing and financial assistance to about 5,000 Orange County families.

Actor Chris Meloni and his wife, Sherman Williams, have leased a gated compound in Beverly Hills. The Spanish-style house, built in 1929, belongs to dancer-actor-choreographer Grover Dale and had been listed at $25,000 a month for a one-year-plus term. The 6,000-square-foot home features a courtyard entry, four fireplaces, a card room, a den, an office, four bedrooms and six bathrooms. There is a guesthouse and a swimming pool. Meloni, 52, is in “42” and “Man of Steel.” Often associated with his cop roles on “NYPD Blue” and “Law & Order,” he will star in the upcoming  TV comedy “I Suck at Girls” and played a vampire last year on the series “True Blood.” Dale, 77, appeared in the musicals “Li'l Abner” and “West Side Story” and the films “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” and “The Landlord.” He choreographed the musical “Billy” and shared a Tony Award as co-director of “Jerome Robbin's Broadway.” Brent Watson of Coldwell Banker's Beverly Hills North office was the listing agent.

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti has amended two years of financial disclosure statements to belatedly report his ownership interest in a Beverly Hills property linked to an oil drilling operation. Garcetti, who has the Sierra Club's backing in his race against Wendy Greuel, signed a 20-year lease in the late 1990s that gave Venoco Inc. the right to drill under the retail property from the company's oil wells at nearby Beverly Hills High School. However, the city councilman from Silver Lake failed to report in his 2010 and 2011 disclosure filings that he co-owned the Wilshire Boulevard property, which houses a hair salon.

There's nothing like competition to bring down the price of a product, even expensive electric cars. Chrysler Group said it will be offering a special deal on its first electric car, the Fiat 500e, when it goes on sale this summer. While the sticker price will be $32,500 before various government incentives, California residents can lease the car for $199 a month, plus tax, and a $999 down payment. It is a 36-month lease. Photos: Top 10 cars with lowest cost per mpg “It is a pretty attractive deal to test the waters and see what kind of a take rate they can get,” said Mike Wall, an analyst with IHS Automotive.

Tenants kept the upper hand in office rent negotiations in Southern California in the first quarter, even though conditions improved slightly for landlords as the economy picked up and some businesses expanded. The most leases were signed in markets such as the Westside and Orange County, where some companies are growing enough to add workers, industry observers said. "I think we're on the slow road to recovery," said Hans Mumper, head of the greater Los Angeles region for real estate brokerage Colliers International.

When the government came for his land, Doan Van Vuon fought back --  first with the law, then with a shotgun. The fish farmer used rifles and explosives to battle police and soldiers seizing his converted swampland, injuring several officers in the clash. His resistance made him a hero to dispossessed peasants fed up with losing property in Vietnam, where the government can confiscate farms and give little in return. Street protests erupted in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City over his case.

A state program leasing wildlife protection areas to farmers failed to properly spend and report at least $1.7 million in rental income as part of the normal budget process last year, according to an internal state investigation announced Thursday. The irregularities in the program run by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife follow a string of similar controversies at agencies including the Recreation and Parks Department and California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection where money was stashed in off-budget accounts.

Mitt Romney said "the president cut in half the number of licenses and permits for drilling on federal lands and in federal waters. " According to the Bureau of Land Management, in fiscal year 2011, 2,188 leases were issued for energy development on federal lands.  Four years earlier, in fiscal year 2007, 3499 leases were issued. So, not quite a 50% drop, but a drop nonetheless. However, the biggest drop-off came in fiscal year 2008, to 2,416 leases. The fiscal year for the federal government starts Oct. 1, 2007, so that decline began under the Bush administration.

Actor George Hamilton has leased out his Wilshire Corridor condo at $5,500 a month. The contemporary unit has city and ocean views, two balconies, two bedrooms and three bathrooms. There is close to 1,900 square feet of living space. The building, constructed in 1982, has a pool, a gym and valet parking. Hamilton, 72, starred in "Love at First Bite" (1979) and "Zorro, the Gay Blade" (1981), among other films in his nearly six-decade acting career. Public records show the actor bought the condo in 2008 for $1.1 million.

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti, who has the Sierra Club's backing in his race against City Controller Wendy Greuel, has cut his ties to an oil drilling operation at Beverly Hills High School. The Times reported last week that the city councilman had signed a lease in 1998 that granted Venoco Inc. drilling rights to a retail property he co-owns through a personal trust. In a document dated Tuesday, when Garcetti finished first in the mayoral primary, he assigned his interest in the lease to family friend John Stillman, a Newport Beach attorney.

Re “ Oyster fight has many interested parties ,” Feb. 24 So let me get this straight. The Lunny family buys an oyster farm in 2005 in Drakes Estero at the Point Reyes National Seashore, knowing that it is slated to close in 2012 based on a 40-year-old agreement between the then-owners and the National Park Service, which provides that at its end, the area will convert to marine wilderness. Now Kevin Lunny is suing the federal government so he can renege on the agreement while, at the same time, paying below-market rent on the lease and low rates for grazing on 1,100 acres of federal land on which the family conducts a profitable cattle business.