'Selling Sunset' star warns California wildfire victims of 'pure greed' from price-gouging landlords
"Selling Sunset’s" lead broker and the founder of the Oppenheim Group is bringing forward proof that California’s alleged price-gouging landlords are not only acting unethically, but illegally, in the wake of the devastating wildfires.
"It's pure greed," Oppenheim told Fox News Digital earlier this week. "It's an insensitivity and a lack of community, and it's a desire for personal gain."
"We're a capitalistic society and I totally understand, in normal circumstances, taking advantage of a supply-demand imbalance," he expanded. "But there's a reason for price gouging laws, and people should be made aware."
Oppenheim is part of a larger group of L.A.-area realtors who have noticed and called out predatory behavior by landlords in the housing and rental market who are asking for higher prices amid wildfire property destruction.
The blazes began 12 days ago, when strong Santa Ana winds carried flames that started in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, FOX Weather reported. Tens of thousands remain displaced in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, still under a state of emergency. The wildfires, which have claimed at least 25 lives and destroyed about 12,000 homes, businesses and schools, continue to inflict disaster.
"I was up late a couple of nights ago or last week, and I was looking for leases and I kept seeing ‘up’ arrows on the [multiple listing service], which you rarely see people raising rental prices, especially when we were in a soft rental market," Oppenheim explained.
"So I drew a map around the Altadena surrounding area and the Palisades surrounding area, and I sorted by price increase, and dozens and dozens of price increases. And I was just flabbergasted," he said. "I imagine it had to be 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 may be increased during a state of emergency.
More specifically, the law states "landlords cannot increase rent by more than 10% during an emergency, unless the increase is due to additional costs or a pre-existing contract."
"These people have suffered the loss of their property and now they're subject to price gouging," Oppenheim scolded. "And even my own clients, that was really something that set me off, to be honest… I sent a client out to see a house that was asking $13,000 on the MLS. He offered the landlord $20,000 and six months upfront, and the landlord countered my client at $23,000 a month, which is almost double what the house was worth. And I was just in shock and frustrated."
"Purposely taking advantage of someone who suffered is not appropriate," he continued. "The landlords that have done that and are in leases above-market, I would be surprised if they don't hear from the district attorney or the attorney general or, at the very least, get a letter from their tenant in a few months, once their tenant's made aware of the situation. And they're going to have to pay back all that money plus penalties plus potential criminal liability."
Also weighing in on the homeowners' insurance debate, Oppenheim pointed his finger at finding bureaucratic solutions versus blaming providers for their actions.
"It frustrates me when I see these celebrities that just superficially attack the insurance companies. It's just such like, click-bait virtue signaling," he said. "Does anyone love 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, mandated that they were not allowed to raise rates, and [insurance companies] were losing billions of dollars because of 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 damages?" the broker posited. "That's stupidity piled on top of stupidity. What we need to do is figure out why they left."
One of the Golden State’s top-grossing real estate leaders – along with a formal letter signed by more than 45 others – argue the California Fair Plan should increase its liability from the current $3 million to $6 million to adequately insure those homes in the Palisades and Malibu.
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"Most of the homes in Malibu weren't able to even get any insurance because California wouldn't offer it to them. So it just seems rather duplicitous that California's not willing to cover them, but then they're somehow blaming the insurance companies," Oppenheim said.
"Let's bring in some more insurance companies. Let's create an efficient marketplace. Let's have California enter the insurance market. It's not rocket science. There's so much incompetence. It's frustrating."