The city of Compton has joined nearly two dozen cities in a lawsuit against a homebuilder accused of cheating cities out of millions in building fees.
Blackbird Special Project, LLC, owned by La Jolla entrepreneur Neil Senturia, filed the lawsuit against Dallas-based Invitation Homes in 2020. The civil complaint was unsealed by a San Diego judge late last year.
The complaint alleges the homebuilder obtained building permits for less than 7% of the homes they owned across Southern California. After performing work such as demolition and upgrades, the homes were rented out without disclosing the unpermitted work.
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Invitation Homes began buying properties throughout the U.S. after the 2007-08 financial crisis, and now owns more than 12,000 dwellings in California, spending about $25,000 on renovations per home, according to the complaint. Avoiding the permit process also avoids safety inspections by city building inspectors, thus possibly putting families renting the homes at-risk.
The company also bought multiple homes in the city of Inglewood who is not enjoined to this lawsuit.
How was the company able to avoid detection when the average Compton resident can’t do roof repairs without code enforcement stopping them?
4 Comments
Years ago in the early 2000’s I found out about a firm called Blackstone. Blackstone is an investment firm that buys up properties in poor, urban, and blighted areas with money from investors. They either sit on the property and wait for it to appreciate in value, flip and sell, demolish, or “fix” and rent the property our through their company, Invitation Homes. They are one of the driving forces of the rent increases in poor neighborhoods. They have been doing this for many, many years. Look around Compton and see homes that have sat empty for years for seemingly no reason. They aren’t abandoned.
There’s no way in hell Invitation Homes was allowed to do any type of repairs to homes in Compton under the watchful eye of our city’s domineering Building & Safety department. Residents here can’t even hose off their driveway without Victor Orozco knowing. Somebody definitely took hush money and we need to find out the ‘who’ and the ‘how much’. This is the tip of the iceberg. With a lot more digging we can expose the corruption in the Compton B&S department. The Freedom of Information Act Request is your best friend.
Blackstone started Invitation Homes. The Inglewood mayor use to live in one of the homes they owned in the Renaiisance.
Somehow that does NOT sound like a coincidence does it?
Not at all.