‘Selling Sunset’ star warns California wildfire victims of ‘pure greed’ of landlords raising prices
Oppenheim Group founder and ‘Selling Sunset’ lead broker talks to Fox News Digital about speaking out against landlords taking advantage of price gouging amid California’s devastating wildfires.
Leading “Sunset Sales” broker and founder of the Oppenheim Group lays out evidence that alleged California landowners are not only acting unethically, but illegally, in the wake of devastating wildfires.
“It’s pure greed,” Oppenheim told Fox News Digital earlier this week. “It is insensitivity and lack of community, and the desire for personal advancement.”
“We are a capitalist society and I fully understand, under normal circumstances, taking advantage of the imbalance between supply and demand,” he said. “But there is a reason for price gouging laws and people should be aware.”
Oppenheim is part of a larger group of Los Angeles area realtors that have noticed and called out the predatory behavior of landlords in the housing and rental market who demand higher prices amid fire destruction of property.
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Flames started 12 days agowhen strong Santa Ana winds carried the flames that broke out in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, FOX Weather reported. Tens of thousands remain displaced in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, where a state of emergency is still in effect. The wildfires, which have claimed at least 25 lives and destroyed around 12,000 homes, businesses and schools, continue to wreak havoc.
Jason Oppenheim is warning California residents about landlords trying to get prime property prices during wildfires. (FOXBusiness)
“I was up late a few nights ago or last week looking for leases and I kept seeing ‘up’ arrows on [multiple listing service]which you rarely see people raising rents, especially when we’ve been in a soft rental market,” Oppenheim explained.
“So I drew a map of the Altadena area and the Palisades area, and I sorted by price increases, dozens and dozens of price increases. And I was just amazed,” he said. “I guess it must have been illegal.”
Using his legal background, the broker found California Penal Code Section 396, which is an anti-price gouging law that limits how much prices can increase during a state of emergency.
Oppenheim Group founder, CEO and leading broker ‘Selling Sunset’ Jason Oppenheim talks to Fox News Digital about his office’s help and support for wildfire victims and their homes, and urges California leaders to cut real estate ‘red tape’.
More specifically, the law states that “a landlord cannot increase the rent by more than 10% during a state of emergency, unless the increase is due to additional costs or a previous contract.”
“These people have suffered the loss of their property and are now subject to price gouging,” Oppenheim chided. “Even my own clients, that was something that really got me going, to be honest… I sent a client to see a house that was asking $13,000 on the MLS. He offered the landlord $20,000 and six months up front, and landlord I gave my client $23,000 a month, almost double the value of the house and I was shocked and frustrated.
“It’s pure greed. It’s insensitivity and lack of community, and the desire for personal gain.”
“Deliberately taking advantage of someone who has suffered is not appropriate,” he continued. “Landlords who have done this and have above-market leases, I’d be surprised if they don’t hear from the district attorney or attorney general in a few months or, at the very least, get a letter from their tenant after their tenant is aware of the situation and will have to pay back all that money plus fines plus potential criminal liability.”
Also taking into account home insurance discussionOppenheim pointed the finger at finding bureaucratic solutions as opposed to blaming service providers for their actions.
Oppenheim Real Estate Group owner Jason Oppenheim discusses the effects of the California wildfires on local real estate markets on ‘The Big Money Show.’
“It frustrates me when I see these celebrities who just superficially attack insurance companies. It’s just clickbait virtue signaling,” he said. “Does anybody like insurance companies? No, probably not. But to sit there and just superficially blame the insurance companies, you know why the insurance companies left California? Because our politicians, in all their infinite wisdom, ordered that they were not allowed to raise rates, and [insurance companies] lost billions of dollars due to previous fires.”
“What do you expect them to do? Come in here and insure us at ridiculously low rates when they’re paying out billions of dollars in claims?” the mediator has set. “It’s stupidity piled on stupidity. What we need to do is figure out why they left.”
One of the Golden State’s most lucrative real estate executives — along with an official letter signed by more than 45 others — claims plan of the fair in California needed to increase its liability from the current $3 million to $6 million to adequately insure those homes in Palisades and Malibu.
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Romero Debbas CEO Pierre Debbas says the economic fallout from California’s wildfires will continue to be an ‘unfortunate story’.
“Most of the homes in Malibu couldn’t get any insurance because California wouldn’t offer it. It seems pretty hypocritical that California doesn’t want to cover them, but then somehow blame the insurance companies,” Oppenheim said.
“Let’s bring in some more insurance companies. Let’s create an efficient market. Let’s get California into the insurance market. It’s not rocket science. There’s so much incompetence. It’s frustrating.”
