Former tenants sue Fresno eviction lawyers over debt collection practices

Two of Fresno’s most prominent eviction attorneys are facing lawsuits from evicted tenants who say the lawyers should be ordered to stop their debt collection practices.

Representing three tenants in two separate complaints, Central California Legal Services accused attorneys Steve Hrdlicka and Lance Armo of unlawful collections and unfair business practices.

“Their debt collection practices are part of the system that keeps our clients poor,” said Patience Milrod, executive director of CCLS. “We have no quarrel with our clients paying amounts actually due. But when they are forced to pay amounts they do not actually owe, that’s an abuse, and that’s part of why legal aid exists.”

Hrdlicka did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Bee. Armo said he had not seen the lawsuit. He did not provide any comment.

The lawsuits were filed Jan. 22 and Jan. 31 in the U.S. District Court in Fresno. Neither suit had been served as of Tuesday.

The tenants are seeking $1,000 for each business code violation and “actual damages in an amount to be determined at trial” for the inconvenience and trauma they say they endured from the attorneys. They are also seeking injunctions against the attorneys to stop them from employing these debt collection practices in the future.

Marcos Segura, the CCLS attorney for the tenants, said they’re looking to protect other tenants and former tenants “ who could potentially be in the same situation.”

‘It’s a way to cut corners’

The lawsuit accuses Hrdlicka of running “the most prolific full-service eviction and debt collection practice in the Central Valley.” Between 2007 and 2016, Hrdlicka filed 26% of the nearly 40,000 unlawful detainer cases in Fresno County Superior Court, according to the complaint.

The complaint alleges Hrdlicka’s client evicted roommates Alejandro Montijo, Jr. and Joseph Banuelos, Jr., from their Fresno apartment in October 2018. They appeared in court and the judge awarded the landlord possession of the property, but no holdover damages, like overdue rent.

Months after the trial, the tenants found out they had a second default judgment filed against them over the same eviction, which made it impossible for them to find new housing. They owed nearly $3,000 in court costs, attorney fees and overdue rent - and they say they were never notified, according to the lawsuit.

In a default judgment, a decision is made against a defendant because they don’t show up to court. In this case, the lawsuit alleges, the defendants were not notified of the second case and never were given a chance to defend themselves.

“(Hrdlicka) misrepresented that these people defaulted, so he skipped giving them notice, went in front of a judge and said give me a judgment for this amount of money,” Segura said. “It’s a way to cut corners.”

According to the lawsuit, this constituted Hrdlicka’s “standard debt collection practices.”

Segura said the order was eventually vacated.

Pay or quit

The other lawsuit was filed against Lance Armo, the second most frequent counsel for landlords in evictions in Fresno County Superior Court, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit alleges an employee from Armo’s office in May 2019 delivered a pay-or-quit notice to Angela Sanchez, a Fresno renter and Section 8 voucher-holder. The notice said she owed $396 in past-due rent for three months. However, her share of the voucher was allegedly $0 during those months.

The case was dismissed and Sanchez stayed in her home. But according to Sanchez’s attorney with CCLS, Ruben Luis Garcia, Armo’s office violated federal debt collection laws by not informing the consumer of their right to dispute a debt and provided misleading information about a debt.

“If you want your debt to be verified you can make that request to avoid mistakes like this one,” Garcia said. But after she called the office, “they never got back to her. She just got served with a complaint, so that jeopardized her voucher. Anytime anyone approached her front door, she worried it was another debt collector.”

According to Milrod, a third lawsuit against another landlord attorney will be filed within the next week.

It’s not the first time her group has taken on what they see as unfair housing practices. Last fall, they sued the city of Clovis over a shortage of affordable housing.

This story has been corrected to report the lawsuits were filed in U.S. District Court in Fresno.

Manuela Tobias is a journalist at The Fresno Bee. This article is part of The California Divide, a collaboration among newsrooms examining income inequity and economic survival in California.

This story was originally published February 5, 2020 at 5:30 AM.