Personal Property

For Andrew and Laura Golder, the garden isn't so much a backdrop for the home but rather an extension of it -- an expression of one's personality, a place of memories and meaning. But how can one create a distinctly personal landscape, especially when space is at a premium? The answer came from landscape architect Michael Schneider of Orange Street Studio in L.A., whose design is artful on its own, yet flexible enough to accommodate the couple's particular style. -- Craig Nakano

Question: I own a couple of houses that I rent out for extra income. Unfortunately, they are not in the best part of our town. I have a tenant living in one of them who may be dealing drugs or doing something else illegal because the police have arrested him several times. Every time he is arrested he makes bail and returns to the house in a day or so. Even though he pays the rent on time, I realize that I can't continue to allow him to live in my house. My plan is to change the locks the next time he is arrested, so he can't come back into the house.

Three-quarters of the nearly 35 million renters in the United States have no insurance to protect their belongings, according to a recent survey. A basic renter's policy pays for personal property losses up to set limits, after a deductible. However, the payout is based on the depreciated value of your possessions, not replacement value. A second option is to pay an extra 10% to 25% in premiums for a replacement cost policy.

One of Iran's most acclaimed film directors has been detained amid an ongoing government crackdown against the opposition, an official said Tuesday. Jafar Panahi, an award-winning director of neorealist films exploring Iran's social topography, along with his wife, 20-year-old daughter and 15 guests were reportedly arrested at his home Monday night in murky circumstances under unspecified charges. Among the guests, according to the reformist news website Aftab, were documentary filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof and his cameraman.

Collectors beware. If you collect art--or baseball cards, jewelry or any other valuable personal property--you may have a looming estate tax problem, says Leah M. Bishop, a partner with Los Angeles law firm O'Melveny & Myers. The tax implications of passing on art and other valuable personal property--regardless of whether you're living or dead--are dicey. But the arcane rules that can trip up the unwary can be used to your advantage if you know what they are and how to use them.

QUESTION: We would like your opinion if we were swindled by the seller and the realty agent on an expensive home we purchased in November. My husband and I have been arguing if we should forget the matter or go after the seller and realty agent for fraud and misrepresentation. The listing agent showed us a home which was vacant.

Renters whose apartments or houses were damaged by fire or vandalism during the Los Angeles riots may be in for a devastating surprise if they don't have tenant's insurance. Landlords are responsible for the structure, not for replacing personal property that may have been stolen or destroyed. And the majority of people renting apartments, condos or houses will have to pay for their losses, insurers say, because most renters don't have tenant's insurance to cover their personal possessions.

Less than one month after Forrest Frields joined the Thousand Oaks Planning Commission in January of 1991, he endured a civic planner's trial by fire. A developer wanted to build a three-story, 245,000-square-foot mall near Thousand Oaks and Westlake boulevards. Residents complained that the project would snarl traffic and increase air pollution. The commissioners, four of whom were new to the panel, debated eight hours into the night before rejecting the proposal.

The City Council agreed Monday to pay a $50,000 settlement to 17 homeless people who have been suing the city since 1988 for confiscating and discarding their bedrolls and other personal property during cleanup sweeps at city parks and the Civic Center. In a decision reached during a private executive session, officials said, the council also agreed to settle a separate but related suit that sought merely to change the city's policy of discarding the confiscated items.

You can drive into this dusty fleck of a town near the Texas-Louisiana state line if you're African American, but you might not be able to drive out of it -- at least not with your car, your cash, your jewelry or other valuables. That's because the police here allegedly have found a way to strip motorists, many of them black, of their property without ever charging them with a crime.

In a 1979 New York Review of Books essay on Woody Allen, Joan Didion singles out a scene at the end of the film "Manhattan" in which Allen's character devises a list of "reasons to stay alive": It includes the second movement of Mozart's "Jupiter" Symphony, Groucho Marx and "A Sentimental Education."

You can drive into this dusty fleck of a town near the Texas-Louisiana state line if you're African American, but you might not be able to drive out of it -- at least not with your car, your cash, your jewelry or other valuables. That's because the police here allegedly have found a way to strip motorists, many of them black, of their property without ever charging them with a crime.

The sight may be a little shocking, Paul Boneberg warned a visitor. And it was. There, removed from tissue-paper wrappings in a storage box, were the wingtip shoes, striped suit and white shirt that gay activist and San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk wore Nov. 27, 1978, the day he was assassinated. Dark bloodstains remained visible around the shirt collar, and small holes -- from bullets -- could be seen in the suit's blue and gray material.

Her suitor had the ring, but she lost her dowry. It was buried beneath the fallen limestone cliffs that smashed her home and smothered her neighborhood two months ago, killing at least 200 people. That morning seems long past, but there are still funerals and newly made orphans when the digging men pull another body from the rock and grit. It goes on like this, names whispered in alleys, hearts broken.

SOME were happy discoveries -- a child's handmade Mother's Day card, singed around the edges but its essence still intact. Or in Patti Grant's case, an engagement ring recovered from the rubble. (See photo on Page 1.) More than 2,000 homes burned across Southern California in the last two weeks, and as victims began sifting through the ashes, Times photographer Mel Melcon recorded what they found: the touchstones that miraculously survived, the mementos ruined by the flames.

THE decisions are made in a scary, smoky instant. A wildfire is blazing toward the front door: What to take to safety? What to leave behind? One woman in Malibu grabbed her old wedding ring and divorce papers. A Santa Clarita man showed up at an evacuation center with four suitcases but little memory of what he and his wife threw into them. "Probably not what we need," he said, clutching his pillow. An Escondido woman, her head cloudy with panic, rescued her $1,000 Christian Louboutin shoes.

Home sales are setting a rapid pace in most cities. With mortgage interest rates continuing to stay low, the traditional peak spring home-buying season promises to be an excellent time to be a buyer or seller. But a confusing aspect of home sales involves determining what is and is not included in the sale. Bitter fights between residence buyers, sellers and sometimes even their real estate agents too frequently erupt over what items automatically go along with the property.

Question: I own a couple of houses that I rent out for extra income. Unfortunately, they are not in the best part of our town. I have a tenant living in one of them who may be dealing drugs or doing something else illegal because the police have arrested him several times. Every time he is arrested he makes bail and returns to the house in a day or so. Even though he pays the rent on time, I realize that I can't continue to allow him to live in my house. My plan is to change the locks the next time he is arrested, so he can't come back into the house.

For Andrew and Laura Golder, the garden isn't so much a backdrop for the home but rather an extension of it -- an expression of one's personality, a place of memories and meaning. But how can one create a distinctly personal landscape, especially when space is at a premium? The answer came from landscape architect Michael Schneider of Orange Street Studio in L.A., whose design is artful on its own, yet flexible enough to accommodate the couple's particular style. -- Craig Nakano

The FBI admitted it accidentally gave classified documents back to the American translator who had pleaded guilty to taking them from the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.