Timestamp: 30 October 2022
This video describes a nine-minute-long home invasion under the color of false authority by Thomas Norton, the new owner of the property, and an unidentified guest whom, we allege, he brought along - in violation of California Civil Code Section 1954 - to take photographs behind our back, while we were otherwise preoccupied, dealing with Mr Norton.
Based on information and belief, in so doing Thomas Norton was carrying out the instructions of his wife and business partner, Nicole Norton, and so we would name her as a party to this alleged home invasion under color of false authority, as well.
Here's what happened:
The apartment complex we live in, in Fortuna, just changed hands. The new owners immediately announced a 10% increase in rent.
We became curious as to what tenants would receive in exchange for that 10% increase in rent, and so, before we signed the new lease, we looked up the other properties owned by the new owner and, one Saturday, we went to look at them.
At 455 Wildwood, in Rio Dell - seven tiny apartments shoehorned into two very small buildings that are each over a century old - we encountered a man who identified himself as the owner - Thomas Norton. He was very angry. He said he was angry that we were trying to contact "his" tenants, and threatened us.
We wondered what Thomas Norton was doing at 455 Wildwood, on a Saturday morning.
We saw several of the front doors at 455 Wildwood were open, but we did not see anyone about. Nor did we see any cars.
Nor did we see a work truck, as would be expected if one were engaged in maintenance.
We wondered if we had interrupted Thomas Norton while he was searching through his tenants' private property, in their absence. We wondered if any of the tenants were young women. But we kept our thoughts to ourselves.
We wonder now if any of Nicole Norton's baristas, employed at Shotz Coffee, rent rooms from Thomas and Nicole Norton, and, if so, whether that is somehow tied to their employment compensation, under the table, and how the valuation of the room is estimated. Were these circumstances true, the Nortons would not only know their tenants' work schedules but would be able to schedule everyone to be absent at the same time. Food for thought.
Monday afternoon - just 48 hours later - Thomas Norton served us with a 24 hour notice of inspection. Just us. Nobody else in the 28-unit complex. He told us the inspection was Friday.
When we asked him why he needed to raise the rent 10%, he told us his son had Down's Syndrome.
We later inspected the paperwork we had been served with and discovered that the date of the inspection was the VERY NEXT DAY, Tuesday, and that we had been given barely 24 hours' notice, and that when Thomas Norton had asserted to us that the inspection was scheduled on Friday, he had not been telling the truth.
The video below covers the nine-minute-long retaliatory "inspection".
Nothing that Thomas Norton was pretending to inspect needed inspection because everything had been inspected six weeks before by multiple pre-purchase building inspection teams.
As we analyze the matter, this was an attempt, by the Nortons, to intimidate us, their tenant, with a calculated abuse of the limited authority the California Legislature has given property owners to respond to emergencies involving their leased premises - and, we assert, this illegal search of our premises was done in order to find a cause to evict us.
It is a fact that no one had asked for anything to be repaired.
Indeed, the owners could not even give us a reliable electronic mail address to which we could send such a list of repairs needing to be done, and get a reply - the refusal of the new management to reply to electronic communications was a major source of friction.
Based on information and belief we now think that evicting every tenant who resists being moved to an upgraded apartment and coerced into paying an enhanced monthly rent for the unrequested improvements, is a fundamental element of Nicole Norton's business plan for her new apartment complex.
We suspect this is criminal conduct. Coercion is not civil behavior.
The next day, 24 August 2022, when we went outside we found our car was blocked by the owner's truck. We had words. He claimed in front of his employees and perhaps two or three of his sons that we had been verbally abusive to him in front of small children living next door. This video shows otherwise.
(Or, you can just browse directly to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMBUWQRcryc and view the video in your browser of choice.)
Thomas and Nicole Norton will not tell us their business address. They will only provide us with post office box numbers. In other circumstances we might be sympathetic. But we think Nicole has an office, we think Nicole takes a tax deduction for that office, and we think that Nicole's office has a mailing address.
Nicole and Thomas Norton want their customers to hand-deposit their rent checks directly inside a numbered mailbox associated with one of the buildings they own, on Main Street, in Fortuna. It is stated explicitly in the rental agreement.
Here's the thing: it's illegal to use one's mailbox as a dropbox.
Here's a link to an article by the United States Post Office, saying so: "Mailbox access restricted to postage paid U.S. Mail", https://about.usps.com/news/state-releases/tx/2010/tx_2010_0909.htm. And this law has been on the books for half a century, that we know of.
Everyone has heard that the United States Postal Service is in big trouble, financially.
As we estimate it, with 28 known tenants at the Nortons' newest acquisition, plus the seven apartments at 455 Wildwood, plus a house here and there, adds up to maybe 40 rent checks, or $20 of postage revenue that the Nortons are denying the USPS, every month.
Multiply that by a few million cheapskate, self-described "land lords" ... and you've got a problem.
And so, based on information and belief, Thomas and Nicole Norton are not only guilty of violating this Federal law, repeatedly, dozens or perhaps hundreds of times, perhaps for years ...
... but they are also actively retaliating against uncooperative tenants, whom they regard as insubordinate, for using USPS Certified Mail to insure that the rent check was received ... and, when ... which are critical elements, when defending oneself against fraudulent late charges.
We are not just flapping our gums.
Nicole Norton tried dunning us with a $50 late fee in September. Based on information and belief, Nicole Norton had no fucking idea that we would be able to browse to a website, type in a certified mail number, see exactly when and where the envelope had been delivered, and cut-and-paste it into an email to her faster than you can say "conspiracy to defraud tenants".
We call posting false accounting entries in an accounting ledger, accounting fraud. We don't know what you call it. We think property managers whom defraud their tenants should be jailed like the white-collar criminals they are.
After that last bit of nonsense, we started running out of patience.
It is our opinion that this behavior conveys a presumption of hierarchy - with the property owners on top, as if they were lords, anointed by a king, somewhere ... and the pathetic tenants, far, far beneath them - rather than a mutually negotiated contract, between equals, that requires mutual respect and mutual consideration and mutual adherence to a common law.
We think that's un-American. We believe this situation is in need of correction.
We are extremely uncomfortable signing a rental agreement with people who conceal their business address from us, their customer. That is dodgy behavior.
In forty years of renting we've never rented from someone who refused to give us a true physical building address of their place of business or whom actively resented the use of certified mail. These are both firsts for us.
Initially we had concerns about yet-to-be-announced changes that would lead to the tenants bearing most of the cost of the new apartment complex owner's improvements.
But now we have some abiding concerns about the management's integrity and core competencies, as well.
We are currently studying the use of the Nexis-Lexis legal search engine ... looking for a lawyer ... and, looking for a new place to live.
If this state of affairs bothers you ... you're not helpless.
The single best way to express your refusal to support Thomas and Nicole Norton's approach to managing their rental properties is to stop buying coffee at Shotz Coffee - which is owned by Nicole Norton. Every time you buy a cup of coffee at Shotz Coffee, you are helping support the purchase of their next apartment complex.
You can get a small espresso machine on Amazon for less than $60. The one we are using is over a decade old and we have worn out two others since we bought our first espresso machine, at Whole Earth Access, in 1996.
Do the math: at $5 per caffe mocha, two mochas per day, that's $70 a week, $280 per month, $3360 per year you're spending on nothing but coffee. An espresso machine is one of the best investments you can make.
Phrased differently, one horny contractor is worth about $3000 of drive-through coffee business per year. Ten horny contractors are worth about $30K. One hundred horny contractors are worth $300,000. Open another drive-through coffee shop to double the number of horny contractors you, ah, service, and you're making a cool $500,000, plus, every year, before salaries and operating expenses. With that kind of money, a person could buy a new apartment complex every year or two.
If you don't want to donate all that money to Nicole Norton, you can still get in line, tip the barista a dollar and collect a smile from a pretty girl. You don't have to give anyone else any money to do that. Just sayin'.
Here's a sweet little espresso machine that's only $49.99: https://www.amazon.com/Yabano-Espresso-Machine-Cappuccino-Frother/dp/B0BB2D38B8/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=3GOACTHV7TEM4 - at $5 a cup, this little machine will literally pay for itself in less than two weeks, what are you waiting for??
Speaking of horny contractors, Thomas and Nicole Norton also own the buildings in Fortuna in which the bar, on Main Street, and the rub-n-tug massage parlor, next to Shotz, reside, and are profiting from the activities of those two businesses as well.
If you are a wife, or a girlfriend ... buying your guy an espresso machine to keep him away from Shotz actually addresses not just one problem, but maybe two or even three problems that our fearless leaders are afraid to tackle - the fact that a significant percentage of the economic activity in their little town is coming from peddling caffeine, alcohol, and soft vice.
Food for thought.
This is a developing story and we will be updating this page with more information as it becomes available, so check back for updates.
Keywords: Fortuna Humboldt California US property ownership management leasing rental tenant law California Civil Code Section 1954
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMBUWQRcryc
Next: We research property ownership on Smith Lane, in Fortuna