The San Francisco DA is suing a Bernal Heights property owner for illegally subdividing 13 housing units into 32 separate apartments. In doing so, it failed to contain a variety of “imminent and significant” fire hazards so serious that in one instance, renters were immediately removed from their unit because it would have been impossible to rescue them during a fire.
Meanwhile, James Tseng, the manager of four neighboring four buildings on Alemany Boulevard, charged tenants in 26 units rent for living in his buildings from November 2022.
“The landlord has made significant profits from the same tenants that it has impacted
way,” prosecutor David Chiu wrote in a statement. “We are taking steps to ensure the safety issues are addressed and the landlord held accountable.”
The city accused Tseng, his company 320 Alemany LLC and other unnamed individuals of being involved in the illegal conversions. The city is urging defendants to clean up any outstanding violations and pay tenants’ moving fees. In addition, the defendants could be billed approximately $11.1 million for failing to resolve 26 outstanding code violations.
In November 2022, multiple city authorities investigated Tseng, finding that he was collecting rent while illegally composing the interiors of his buildings, maximizing every inch of space.
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Tseng allegedly crammed multiple bedrooms into one unit by dividing rooms, converting a laundry room into a full kitchen, and adding laundry hookups to closets, according to the lawsuit.
“If these harassment conditions are not remedied, residents will … suffer irreparable injury and damage,” the city’s complaint reads.
The illegal construction resulted in units with a variety of fire hazards that could have resulted in a disaster, according to the lawsuit.
In a notice of violations issued in December 2022, the Building Inspection Department cited Tseng for converting the rooms of five residential units into bedrooms “with no emergency exits.” Tseng never obtained the necessary permits to mitigate the problem, and the breach remained in place despite the building inspector’s repeated warnings.
Several units lacked fire safety devices such as a building-wide fire detection system, advanced sprinkler systems, and emergency exits. The lawsuit also listed references to “unlisted fire sites.”
In another unit, inspectors concluded that the tenants “could not be rescued in the event of a fire” and issued a 72-hour emergency warrant to evacuate the unit and relocate the tenants.
Tseng has a history of wrongdoing. Notices of violations date back to January 2009 – his first alleged illegal conversion, in which he “divided each floor of the building from one permitted dwelling into two prohibited dwellings.” While Tseng and his LLC applied for permits to remedy the situation in 2022, the applications remained pending. Violations cited by the city continue unabated.
In a particularly long-standing violation, Tseng was reported in March 2009 for a lack of accessible fire hose connections in the unit, as well as other livability concerns such as a leaking sink and broken cabinets in another unit. The city imposed a severe penalty, known as an “order of abatement,” on the property in 2013 to force redevelopment, but notice of the violation remains to this day — some 10 years later.
Tseng also allegedly approved of poor electrical and plumbing work in his units, which also suffered from pest infestations including mold and cockroaches; The cockroach infestation has never been fully mitigated. The prosecutor claimed that the conditions in Tseng’s units not only endanger the health and safety of residents, but also “insult the senses.”
The properties targeted by the prosecutor’s complaint are located at 316-18 Alemany Blvd., 320 Alemany Blvd., 322 Alemany Blvd. and 326-28 Alemany Blvd, all just a stone’s throw from the Alemany Farmers Market
The buildings aren’t the first in District 9 where contractors have illegally built numerous units into buildings, to the detriment of tenant safety: In 2021, the city investigated a series of connected four-story buildings at 2867 San Bruno with 19 additional units. This led to the resignation of chief inspector and now-confessional federal criminal Bernie Curran.
Supervisor Hillary Ronen, for her part, drew attention to a pattern where developers are unlawfully maximizing space – and profits – at the expense of tenants.
“The violations set out in this complaint against the owner are alarming and serious,” she said. “We must continue to make it clear as a city that knowingly disregarding our building and fire codes will not be tolerated as a cost of doing business for developers and will be punishable by a fine to the maximum extent permitted by law.”
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