The SFBG today cracks open one of CitiApartments' apparently many skeletony closets.
The ubiquitous mega-landlord is already facing an ongoing lawsuit by the city for its "nefarious" tactics in forcing out its poorer tenants, and has added to its life scrapbook a shiny new class action lawsuit for not returning people's deposits.
But wait, there's more! The mega-landlord has also been stonewalling the city in getting its real estate acquisitions properly reassessed— thus saving them countless dollar signs and costing the city those same dollar signs.
As the SFBG notes, when Lembi Group (the name of the parent corporation) doesn't pay back bank loans, the banks can (and do) just foreclose with vengeance.
The city, however, gets stuck dealing with Lembi with little recourse but to wait, thumbs twiddling, for the company to cooperate with the reassessment process. Just one example: for four years, Lembi had been paying a little over $13k in taxes on a property last assessed at $1 mil. New assessment? $11.7 million, and $137k in taxes.
