The City of Oakland is joining a legal battle against a local landlord over prolonged elevator problems at an apartment building. The City Attorney’s Office has filed a lawsuit against Mosser Companies after discovering that both elevators at the company’s six-story building on 13th Street were out of service for 52 consecutive days last summer. Prosecutors say the lengthy outage was part of what they describe as a broader pattern of neglect by Mosser at the property. City officials say elderly and disabled tenants faced significant challenges getting into and out of their homes while the elevators were broken. A group of tenants recently filed a separate lawsuit against the company over conditions at the building. Oakland’s lawsuit seeks rent repayments for tenants affected by the elevator outage, along with court orders requiring Mosser to comply with the city’s tenant protection laws. Mosser Companies has not commented publicly on either lawsuit or the allegations made against it.
