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Oakland suing landlord for violating elevator ordinance
The Oakland City Attorney is joining a legal battle against a downtown landlord after elderly and disabled residents were left without working elevators for weeks.
OAKLAND, Calif. - The Oakland City Attorney is joining a legal battle against a downtown landlord after elderly and disabled residents were left without working elevators for weeks.
The lawsuit against Mosser Companies alleges a history of disrepair at "La Peralta," a six-story affordable housing building with roughly 100 units. During the summer of 2025, both elevators in the building were out of service for 52 consecutive days, leaving many mobility-impaired residents trapped or forced to navigate multiple flights of stairs.
‘Nightmare’ for residents
What they're saying:
According to residents, complaints regarding building maintenance had gone ignored for months. During elevator outages, the Oakland Fire Department responded to more than a dozen emergency calls to free residents trapped inside malfunctioning elevators.
Oakland firefighters reportedly responded to the building, located at 184 13th Street, 75 times since the start of 2025 for various incidents.
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"It’s a life and death issue really, and I think it’s about time," said Kathy Vaquilar, a tenant at La Peralta and one of seven residents currently suing the landlord.
Vaquilar, who deals with mobility issues herself, was taking care of her late husband, Rich, during the outage. She noted that emergency crews had to carry him down four flights of stairs on a tarp after he fell on three separate occasions while the elevators were out of service. He passed away in April.
Other residents reported being trapped inside their homes due to health conditions.
"I had a bad knee at the time and I couldn’t – I was housebound," said tenant April Dawn.
City attorney enforcing elevator ordinance for the first time
Dig deeper:
This lawsuit marks the first time the Oakland City Attorney's Office is enforcing a city ordinance passed in 2024. The law requires landlords to notify tenants of any planned or unplanned elevator outage lasting longer than 24 hours and to provide accommodations, which can include temporary relocation.
"We did some digging, looked into it and found out that there had been a history of disrepair of the elevators at this building," said Oakland City Attorney Ryan Richardson. "Part of what we’re trying to do here is for the handful of landlords out there that would be tempted to cut corners in this way, is to make sure they think twice."
In addition to elevator failures, tenants reported ongoing pest issues and unaddressed damage to the building. Despite the conditions, leaving is not an option for many low-income residents facing high regional housing costs.
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Not the first lawsuit
Big picture view:
Mosser Companies is one of Northern California’s largest housing providers, operating more than 3,000 rental units across the state. The company has previously been named in other litigation.
One of the plaintiffs in the tenant lawsuit alleges the elevators were out in a different building in San Francisco, also operated by Mosser, and moved to the Oakland building on 13th Street, only to find the elevators would go out again. The lawsuit also claims that investigations revealed the company had been behind in payments to contractors for maintenance and repairs, so they halted service.
The city's legal action seeks restitution for affected tenants and aims to force the property into compliance.
"Hopefully it will cause them to fix things a little quicker next time," said tenant Steve Wilt.
Efforts to reach Mosser Companies in time for this report were unsuccessful.
The Source: Oakland City Attorney's Office, Court filings, KTVU Interviews & Reporting