A tenant “harassed” during a seizure dispute and fighting for his home

OAKLAND, California. – An East Oakland tenant is caught in the middle of a real estate dispute as two men continue a legal battle over who owns her building.

The tenant, Cecilia Carey, said she was threatened and harassed into leaving, but was fighting for her home.

“I’m sick, I’m nauseous, every time someone knocks on the door I’m scared. I jump,” she said.

Carey has lived in her apartment on 64th Avenue Place in East Oakland for seven years. So it was a surprise when she received a notice of foreclosure on the property she was renting.

In October 2023, Carey received an eviction notice in the mail stating that a man named Mauricio Torres was suing her landlord, Lionel Tanner. She and the other tenants of her fourplex were not named in the document.

Since then, she said she has been caught in the crossfire between Tanner, the man with whom she has a rental agreement, and Torres, the man who purchased the foreclosed property.

“When we got the illegal detainer, I called Mr. Tanner and asked him about the situation, you know, to find out what was going on, and that’s when he said that he was actually in court regarding the title to the building,” Carey said. .

Documents from July 2023 show the property was sold in a trustee sale, with Torres as the bidder.

However, Carey said she was never informed the property was changing hands.

The uncertainty caused her anxiety, she said. “I just want it to go away. I don’t want to have to worry about it. I don’t want it to be the last thing I think about when I go to bed and the first thing I think about when I wake up. got up in the morning.”

Tanner told KTVU the sale was made illegally.

He wrote in a court document: “The sale was void because it involved a deceased individual. »

Despite attempting to ask Tanner for clarification on the deceased, KTVU was unable to obtain further comment from him.

Tanner is currently in litigation with Torres over title to the property.

“I think this is something that Mr. Torres and Mr. Tanner should be fighting about. Not with the tenants,” Carey said.

Carey said she has continued to pay rent to Tanner over the past year since she learned about it.

“We don’t have a lease with Mr. Torres,” she said.

While Tanner and Torres clashed, Carey says she was threatened by Torres and his associates, not only with quit notices, but also with unwanted visitors.

“I hear knocking on the door, knocking on the door. I’ve been getting text messages and threats,” she said.

Carey said in July she had to call police when people she believed associated with Torres showed up at the property.

“One of the tenants received a notice that he had to pay $17,000 in back rent, even though he has never been late on his rent,” she said.

Eventually, other tenants in the fourplex agreed to leave, but Carey stayed to fight for her home and took it to court.

After months of contact with Torres and his attorney Timothy Larson, KTVU finally received an email from Larson stating “there is no legitimate title dispute.”

He then wrote that Carey was a Torres tenant who was “told in open court that he was the landlord and that rent was to be paid to him.”

Larson called Tanner’s court documents “nonsense” and wrote to journalist Crystal Bailey: “If you want to single out these people, you will only embarrass yourself.” »

Marc Janowitz of the East Bay Community Law Center handled Carey’s case.

“When these individuals and their agents show up at the property and start changing the locks and doing things like a new owner would do, and she doesn’t know who these people are, it’s a little worrying. “is legally very dangerous,” Janowitz said.

He said he has seen an increase in foreclosure eviction cases since the pandemic.

In 2008, the national housing crisis caused an unprecedented number of foreclosures, and the Tenant Foreclosure Protection Act was created to protect tenants whose landlord loses the property.

Janowitz said Carey was operating under a legal rental agreement.

“It appears to me that there is a legitimate dispute as to whether the seizure was appropriate and legal. If it is not legal, then Carey’s former owner remains her owner,” he said.

“I thought I was losing my house, and I still might,” Carey said.

It’s not over. In July, Carey received another legal document: a three-day notice to pay or leave.

Torres was seeking more than $19,000 in back pay for all the months she paid Tanner rent.

In August, she received an eviction notice, opening proceedings for another trial. This time, against her.

“I’m a legal, legal tenant. I haven’t done anything wrong,” Carey said.

As the feud continued, the situation encouraged Carey to continue her education. She recently enrolled in Cal State East Bay’s paralegal program, studying to help others like her.

She has this message for tenants involved in a dispute with their landlord: “You need to know your rights. You need to be able to discern when someone is trying to take advantage of you. If you don’t know how to be resourceful, you have to learn to be resourceful. »

Hearings continue in the case between Torres and Tanner, with the next court date scheduled for late October. In the meantime, Carey will fight the eviction lawsuit.