KPIX 5 Confronts San Jose Landlord Over Cockroaches, Poor Conditions
SAN JOSE (KPIX 5) – After reporting on a San Jose apartment complex where residents lived in deplorable conditions, KPIX 5 confronted the landlord when he paid a visit.
Reporter Maria Medina said landlord Michael Lucich first denied who he was, just like how he denied there were any problems in his building.
"I don't need to talk to you," Lucich said. "Excuse me, get out of here."
Many of Lucich's tenants on Rexford Way said their units are infested with mold, cockroaches, and one tenant claims her unit is infested with mice.
Meanwhile, Luchich lives beyond the gates of a Los Gatos home.
Diane Buchanan, the deputy director of San Jose Code Enforcement, said her department is familiar with Luchich.
"We have had a good amount of complaints over the years from his building," Buchanan told KPIX 5.
Buchanan said Luchich is being given time to resolve recent code violations from earlier this month.
But KPIX 5 also reached out to the city's housing department after a couple tenants said Lucich was allegedly evicting them, then telling them they could only stay if they signed a new lease as a new tenant. As a result, their rent would increase by several hundred dollars.
"Landlords have to specifically state what is the reason of the eviction," San Jose Housing Director Jacky Morales-Ferrand said. "To ask somebody to leave and then to allow them to come back in and pay a higher rent would be a violation of that ordinance."
Lucich is also accused of violating a new law that prohibits rent hikes of more than five percent.
The housing director said they're now going to look into the allegations to see if he broke any laws.
For his part, after KPIX 5 contacted Lucich about the cockroach problem by phone last week, the landlord said he would bring in an exterminator. Tenants said Lucich fulfilled that promise.