Tenants

Three days after listing a house for sale, real estate agents Richard and Jean Murphy of Portland, Maine, began receiving a surprising number of calls — not from buyers but from would-be tenants. It turns out the callers were answering an ad that said the place was for rent, "and at a really low price," the agents for Harborview Properties recall. Worse, the "owner" was not the Murphys' client. It was someone living in another state who told callers that if they sent $1,500, the place would be theirs.

Known for the great variety of the roles he plays, Leonardo DiCaprio now is trying his hand at Malibu beach house landlord. He has listed this Cape Cod-inspired home for $75,000 a month for a long-term tenant or $150,000 a month for leases of less than six months. His Malibu Colony compound was recently remodeled and features a four-bedroom main house on the ocean side, a two-bedroom guest house and a detached loft with gym. There is a beach-front deck, a fire pit, gardens and lawn on the less-than-half-acre lot. DiCaprio, 37, whose blockbuster hits include "Titanic" (1997)

In yet another demonstration of the power of entertainment and technology firms to bring neglected neighborhoods to life, an obscure corner of Culver City has emerged as a fashionable hub of creative industries. Architects, advertising agencies, post-production companies and Internet-related firms are crowding into the Hayden Tract, a 50-acre huddle of industrial buildings south of Venice Boulevard that was formerly considered a drab secondary market.

Question: My son has severe allergies, including an allergy to cat fur. To keep him safe, I moved my family to a community that was advertised as pet free. Then, six months after moving here, I noticed a cat on my next door neighbor's balcony. When I asked the manager if the cat lived in the next unit, she said the community management had no choice because the cat was a companion animal necessary to mitigate that resident's disability. That may be great for my neighbor, but what about my son, who is in danger of needing emergency medical care if he has an allergy attack?

Tenants of a poultry ranch in Napa say there is nothing wrong with raising roosters and selling them to people who stage cockfights in Mexico, but California law doesn't agree and animal rights advocates say it's just plain cruel. Although it is a misdemeanor to raise fighting fowl, Capt. Mike Loughran of the Napa County Sheriff's Department says he can't search the Napa ranch unless evidence links roosters on the property to cockfights in other places.

With the lease winding down on his law firm's Universal City offices last year, Ray Hamrick figured that he was going to have to move because his rent would be rising beyond what he could reasonably pay. Reluctantly, he started looking for space in buildings that weren't as desirable as the sleek, 35-story high-rise on Universal Hollywood Drive that his firm had called home since the 1980s. Then the global recession took hold, and his building, the tallest in the San Fernando Valley, went into foreclosure.

Overheard on the Chelsea Hotel stairway one recent Sunday: Question: "Is Rita still here?" Reply: "Rita's dead." A pause between footsteps. "Rita was a sweetheart." Only in this hotel could such an exchange take place as calmly as if two people were discussing the weather. But most people don't check out of the Chelsea if they can help it.

The Los Angeles City Council voted Friday to provide up to $322,000 in relocation money to dozens of low-income tenants who must move from a South Los Angeles apartment building deemed unsafe by city inspectors. Tenants were given eviction notices last month after housing officials concluded that owner John Callaghan had illegally converted what was supposed to have been a three-unit apartment building on 49th Street into as many as 44 separate living spaces — a warren of narrow hallways; tiny, shared bathrooms; and communal kitchens, much of it laced with unpermitted electrical and plumbing work.

Here are some tips for small-time landlords who are worried about losing tenants at a time when options for renters are greater than ever. From Multifamily Executive Magazine, these renewal tactics are aimed at professional property managers, but they work for amateurs just as well: Start early. Don't wait for the final month -- or worse, until your tenants contact you. Several months out, contact the tenants to try to determine their intentions. If need be, offer to keep the rent at the same level.

Question: I own two houses on the same street. I live in one and rent out the other. The tenants in the rental house have seven months left on their lease. I would like to move my wife's mother into the rental house so she can move out of my house. Will I be able to do that? Answer: A lease is an agreement that is binding on all parties to it, tenant and landlord. Some leases have "escape clauses" that allow either party to cancel upon giving notice, typically 30 days. If the lease agreement you used for this rental does not include an escape clause, you have no general right to unilaterally cancel the lease.

On Tuesday morning, 80-year-old Bobby Salisbury took the last of his items from his boat moored at Colonial Yacht Anchorage in Wilmington and stuffed them inside his gray Nissan off-road truck. "I'm the happiest guy today," he said sarcastically. For years, Salisbury has lived at the marina. Then last month, the Los Angeles Harbor Department ordered him and more than 90 other tenants to leave by May 1, calling the dock and 138 slips in Berth 204 too dilapidated to be safe.

Cautious growth among white-collar firms kept the Los Angeles County office market flat in the first quarter as average rents and occupancy remained unchanged from a year earlier. A handful of neighborhoods such as Santa Monica, Pasadena and Glendale are tightening in favor of landlords, but others remain relative bargains for renters. "Santa Monica is a classic example of where there is a flood of activity by technology-minded companies that have really created an extensive demand, driving down vacancy and driving up rental rates," said Neal Resnick, managing director of property brokerage Avison Young.

Former executives of office landlord MPG Office Trust Inc. have launched their own property company with the purchase of a landmark Los Angeles office building. Nelson and Christopher Rising of Rising Realty Partners expect their acquisition of Pacific Center at 6th and Olive streets to close Monday. Terms of the purchase from Alliance Commercial Partners were not revealed, but experts familiar with downtown real estate prices value the deal at $60 million. The new owners will change the name of the complex to the PacMutual Building, in keeping with origins of the Beaux Arts-style complex that can be traced to railroad tycoons Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford and Mark Hopkins.

Harold Hazelton can't imagine living on land. For more than 30 years, the 76-year-old and his wife, Donna, 75, have resided on their 43-foot Grand Mariner at Colonial Yacht Anchorage in Wilmington. That soon will end, however. "I don't know what we're going to do," he said. "I don't like living on land. I've been on water all of my life. " The Hazeltons are among 95 tenants who face eviction May 1, the result of port officials having labeled the marina's dock and its 138 slips in Berth 204 as too dilapidated to be safe.

Former executives of office landlord MGP Office Trust have launched their own property company with the purchase of a landmark Los Angeles office building. Nelson and Christopher Rising of Rising Realty Partners expect their acquisition of Pacific Center at Sixth and Olive streets to close Monday. Terms of the purchase from Alliance Commercial Partners were not revealed, but experts familiar with downtown real estate prices value the deal at $60 million. The new owners will change the name of the complex to the PacMutual Building, in keeping with the origins of the Beaux Arts style complex that can be traced to railroad tycoons Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford and Mark Hopkins.

Question: I own two houses on the same street. I live in one and rent out the other. The tenants in the rental house have seven months left on their lease. I would like to move my wife's mother into the rental house so she can move out of my house. Will I be able to do that? Answer: A lease is an agreement that is binding on all parties to it, tenant and landlord. Some leases have "escape clauses" that allow either party to cancel upon giving notice, typically 30 days. If the lease agreement you used for this rental does not include an escape clause, you have no general right to unilaterally cancel the lease.

On Tuesday morning, 80-year-old Bobby Salisbury took the last of his items from his boat moored at Colonial Yacht Anchorage in Wilmington and stuffed them inside his gray Nissan off-road truck. "I'm the happiest guy today," he said sarcastically. For years, Salisbury has lived at the marina. Then last month, the Los Angeles Harbor Department ordered him and more than 90 other tenants to leave by May 1, calling the dock and 138 slips in Berth 204 too dilapidated to be safe.

As a renter who has more than once suffered the distress of having a house sold out from under me, I applaud Ellen James Martin's advice on selling rental property ("Tips to Sell House That Had Been Rented," July 19), that encourages taking into consideration the tenant. But I must register a protest to the commonly held idea she expresses that rental property is usually in poorer condition than owner-occupied property because "there's no pride of ownership on the part of tenants."

Question: I am a manager for a company that provides property management for several rental communities. We have a limited pet policy in all our properties. Residents can have pets only if we approve the specific animal. We have this policy so that animals unsuited for an apartment community, because they are too large or too noisy, can be excluded. A resident in one of our properties gave us a note from his doctor stating that he needed a service animal to help with his disability.

Endemol USA, producer of the house-fixing television show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," has more than doubled the size of its own quarters in West Hollywood and North Hollywood. Endemol develops popular reality-style shows such as "Big Brother" and"Wipeout"as well as scripted dramas, including the railroad western"Hell on Wheels"on AMC. The company has consolidated in two office buildings while expanding its overall space to 75,000 square feet, said broker Michael P. Arnold of Newmark Knight Frank.