“As you know I still have a adjustable mortgage loan on the property, rate incrase crazy lately, I have to wait for the rate to go down so I can refinance the loan. Also I’m renting my pratice since 2003, my landlord increase my rent every year 4 to 5% base on Cpi. This year they increase to 6% because of the inflation. You lease this property 3 years now and I never increased the rent for 3 years! Normally the rent should increase minimum 3% yearly base on Cpi. Hope you understand the situation.” — text message from the landlord, received in the weeks before the move-out. Per the household’s account, the property manager had declined to speak with police. Reproduced verbatim, including original spelling.
The hardship described is real and is not disputed here. The COVID period closed dental practices, disrupted tenant payment, and drove adjustable mortgage rates upward. A landlord could genuinely feel squeezed.
The question this page presents is not whether he felt pressure — it is what a person controlling this much real property does with it. An owner of multiple parcels facing a temporary rate increase has ordinary remedies: sell a holding, refinance against substantial equity, or draw on a line of credit. The public record below shows the assets that were available. The remedy actually chosen was to remove a long-term tenant and convert the unit to a higher-earning short-term rental.
Presented as a question under Civ. Code §3439.04 and the badges-of-fraud analysis: was the stated distress the kind that necessitates eviction, or the kind an owner of this portfolio could have weathered? No court or agency has made a finding.