September 21, 2004
Amy
Sexton, Manager
Lakewood
Apartments
515 John Muir Drive
San
Francisco, California 94132
Dear Ms.
Sexton:
We, the undersigned tenants of Lakewood Apartments (see attached endorsement page[s]) and members of the Lakewood Tenants Association
have read the letter from you dated August 26, 2004 that you delivered to tenants of several "test units" concerning an experiment you are apparently
conducting in their apartments with a ventilating device. We understand that you have installed this device, in some if not all cases, without obtaining
permission of the tenants to do so. Furthermore, we understand that you have installed these devices by cutting through the exterior walls of the
apartments, that you have connected the devices to the electrical service paid for by the tenants, that the devices run continuously making noise
and consuming electricity and that the devices cannot be turned off by the tenants.
While we would not only support but appreciate reasonable and competent efforts on the part of the property owners to abate mold at this property,
we believe that this is no such effort. In the first place, there are laws that protect tenants from unwarranted intrusions by a landlord. We believe
that there is no need for experimentation because the means of mold abatement are well known to experts that you could employ to advise you.
As such, we believe that your entry into the several apartments was completely unnecessary and, therefore, may have been a violation of such laws.
Beyond the legal aspect, we think that it is unconscionable of the management of this property to force tenants to be guinea pigs in the management's
experiments and, to add insult to injury, to make the tenants pay for part of the cost of such experiments. We also believe that it is questionable as to
whether the devices you have installed can be expected to have any beneficial effects at all. You included your own description of the device and its
operation with your letter of August 26th. We believe that no one on your staff is qualified to have made that description and that some of the information
appears to be questionable scientifically.
Consequently, we have the following requests: 1.) Please do not plan on conducting any experiments in our apartments without our permission;2.) Please do not enter our apartments without permission other than strictly as allowed by law;
3.) Please obtain competent professional advice before making any alterations to the apartments for health and safety reasons where the alterations
could impact our quiet enjoyment or appearance of our apartments or the property generally.
4.) Please either remove the devices from the test units and restore the walls or provide the tenants of the test units and the Lakewood Tenants Association
with evidence from competent professionals that the installation of the devices is necessary.
If it is established that the installation in any of the units is necessary, we believe that further discussion should occur as to what the costs of operation of this
device will be and who is liable to pay such costs.
Please direct any response to this letter to the Lakewood Tenants Association at the above address.
Sincerely,
Mona
Cereghino, President,
Ross C. Wilkinson, Vice-president