Marina del Rey : Court Bars Tenant Rent Suits

A Marina del Rey tenants’ group cannot take landlords to court on claims that marina rents are excessive, the 2nd District Court of Appeal has ruled. Landlords in the publicly owned marina lease the land for their apartments from Los Angeles County. The tenants have complained that the landlords violated their contract with the county, which calls for “fair and reasonable” rents. However, the court concluded, the county has never said the rents were unreasonable, and the tenants have no right to interfere with the contract.

“The tenants have not offered any legal basis for their assertion that the (landlords’) charging county-approved rents was a wrongful acquisition of benefits,” the court said. The agreement between the landlords and the county “does not lend itself to . . . second-guessing by the tenants of the (county’s) determination that the rents are ‘fair and reasonable,’ ” the decision said.