Amid litigation, JD Home Rentals says it’s scapegoat for Fresno’s own housing failures
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- JD Homes Rentals says City of Fresno scapegoats it for its own housing policy failures.
- City of Fresno bolstering code enforcement amid legal disputes with JD Home Rentals.
- City Councilmember Arias doubles down on criticism of JD Homes Rentals.
JD Home Rentals, a large landlord company that’s suing the City of Fresno over various fines, says it’s not backing down despite officials’ moves to strengthen code enforcement with new inspection rules and penalties.
In a statement to The Fresno Bee, Bryce Hovannisian, a member of JD’s ownership family, suggested the company has become a scapegoat for the city’s own housing failures. JD done more for affordable housing in Fresno than the city has, Hovannisian said.
He also blasted local officials for criticizing JD in the local media rather than calling him directly to talk about their problems with the company.
“JD Home Rentals houses thousands of Fresno families, (and) will continue to be a good steward of its properties and tenants, and will continue to defend itself against baseless enforcement, no matter how expensive the City tries to make it,” Hovannisian said.
Long criticized by local officials and tenants’ rights advocates, JD has a history of accusations that it operates substandard housing. The company in 2021 settled a class action suit from tenants filed in 2014 that accused JD of allowing dangerous living conditions. Today, some JD properties — owned by its various related business entities — remain a focus of Fresno’s Anti-Slum Enforcement Team.
“They have demonstrated they have no interest in changing their behavior,” District 3 City Councilmember Miguela Arias, a vocal critic of JD, told The Bee last week.
JD has not taken the city’s enforcement actions lying down. This year alone, JD’s related businesses have sued the city at least eight times accusing code enforcement officers of conducting unlawful property inspections and breaking promises related to deadlines for violation fixes. The company is hoping Fresno County Superior Court will throw out citations issued against JD in recent years, many worth just $250.
Fresno bolstering code enforcement amid tension with JD Homes Rentals
At least in part, legal disputes with JD have led the city to bolster its code enforcement department this year.
Following a ruling that went in JD’s favor, the City Council in March approved new rules allowing code enforcement officers to access parts of private properties considered public, such as porches and driveways, without warrants.
Staff are also now preparing to update Fresno’s fine structure for code enforcement violations, Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz said in a recent interview with The Bee.
“If we give a little bit more teeth to the law, I think JD (Home Rentals) might think twice about challenging every single notice or citation,” Janz said.
Arias said he wants an updated fine structure to allow the city to recover all that it spends on code enforcement cases. He added that JD doesn’t initiate repairs until code enforcement officers order them — a pattern that was identified in the 2014 class action tenant suit, an attorney that helped launch that case told The Bee in June.
In his statement to The Bee, Hovannisian said the company looks forward to the city “enacting a bilateral cost recovery fee structure, which will enable us to recover our costs when we prevail.”
JD Homes Rentals says City of Fresno ‘needs someone to blame’
Hovannisian described the city as targeting a provider of affordable housing “in the midst of a statewide housing crisis.”
“The City of Fresno has apparently decided the biggest problem confronting it is to make leasing property to tenants in need more difficult,” he said. “Relying on provably false allegations, the City targets JD Home Rentals not because it violates any law, ordinance, or regulation, but because it needs someone to blame for its own decades of failed housing policy. JD Home Rentals houses thousands of Fresno families and has done more to provide affordable housing in this city than any program the City has ever run.”
Hovannisian said city citations “involve less than .01%” of JD’s units and added that the company has “successfully challenged many of them.” Hovannisian said JD’s legal success against the city “is precisely why the City Attorney wants to punish a property owner for exercising its legal right to appeal.”
He added that JD Home Rentals “makes repairs at its tenants’ request every day, and it is intentionally defamatory to assert that code enforcement is required for repairs to occur.”
“If the City Attorney or any councilmember were seriously interested in housing, they have my number and could call me at any time,” Hovannisian said. “None of them ever has. Instead, they politicize housing and talk to the press."
Fresno Councilmember Arias doubles down on landlord criticism
Janz on Monday did not respond to The Bee’s request for a response to Hovannisian’s statement. In a statement texted to The Bee, Arias continued his criticism of the company.
Arias said residents and tenants typically turn to code enforcement only after a landlord has failed to meet basic health and safety standards.
“Code enforcement is not the cause of these issues — it is a response to them,” he said. “JD (Home Rentals) has repeatedly failed to adequately maintain its rental properties, leaving residents with little choice but to seek intervention from the City.”
He pointed to a blighted JD-owned property on Belmont Avenue in his district. Arias said the long-vacant property “has required numerous code enforcement actions over the years” and has attracted crime and drug problems.
Arias questioned whether JD’s owners would allow their own homes or those in the neighborhoods where they live to “deteriorate to the same condition as their Belmont property.”
“It is difficult to imagine,” he said. “The same standard of care they expect for their own community should be extended to the neighborhoods where they own rental properties.”
This story was originally published July 14, 2026 at 11:21 AM.
