The Oppenheim Group founder and lead broker of ‘Selling Sunset’ tells Fox News Digital how he’s speaking out against homeowners taking advantage of price gouging amid California’s devastating wildfires.
Selling Sunset’s Lead Broker and Oppenheim Group Founder Provides Evidence That Alleged Price-Government Owners in California Are Acting Not Only Unethically, but Illegally, Following Devastating Wildfires .
“It’s pure greed,” Oppenheim told Fox News Digital earlier this week. “It’s insensitivity and lack of community, and it’s a desire for personal gain.”
“We are a capitalist society and I completely understand that, under normal circumstances, we benefit from an imbalance between supply and demand,” he added. “But there is a reason for price gouging laws, and people should know about it.”
Oppenheim is part of a larger group of Los Angeles area real estate agents who have noticed and called predatory behavior of landlords in the housing and rental market, who demand higher prices amid destruction of properties by wildfires.
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The fires started 12 days agowhen strong Santa Ana winds carried flames that started in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, FOX Weather reported. Tens of thousands of people remain displaced in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, still under a state of emergency. Wildfires, which have killed at least 25 people and destroyed about 12,000 homes, businesses and schools, continue to cause disasters.
Jason Oppenheim warns California residents about landlords trying to obtain high home prices during the wildfire disaster. (FOXBusiness)
“A few nights ago or last week I stayed up late and was looking up leases and seeing upward arrows on the [multiple listing service]that you rarely see people raising rent prices, especially when we were in a weak rental market,” Oppenheim said.
“So I drew a map of around Altadena and around Palisades, and I sorted it by price increase, and dozens and dozens of price increases. And I was just flabbergasted.” , he said. “I guess it must have been illegal.”
Using his legal experience, the broker found California Penal Code Section 396, which is an anti-price gouging law that limits price gouging during a state of emergency.
Jason Oppenheim, founder, CEO and principal broker of ‘Selling Sunset,’ the Oppenheim Group, speaks to Fox News Digital about his office’s aid and support for wildfire victims and their homes, and urges California leaders to eliminate real estate “administrative formalities”.
Specifically, the law states that “landlords may not increase rent by more than 10% in an emergency, unless the increase is due to additional costs or a pre-existing contract.”
“These people have suffered the loss of their property and are now victims of price gouging,” Oppenheim chastised. “And even my own clients, that was something that really triggered me, to be honest…I had a client look at a house that was asking $13,000 on the MLS. He offered the owner $20,000 and six months early, and the landlord countered my client at $23,000 a month, almost double the value of the house. And I was just shocked and frustrated.
“It’s pure greed. It’s callousness and lack of community, and it’s a desire for personal gain.”
“It is not appropriate to intentionally take advantage of someone who has suffered,” he continued. “Landlords who have done this and whose leases are above market, I would be surprised if they don’t hear from the district attorney or the attorney general or, at the very least, receive a letter from their tenant in a few months, once their tenant is informed of the situation, and they will have to repay all this money plus penalties and possible criminal liability.
Also weighing on the debate on home insuranceOppenheim pointed to the need to find bureaucratic solutions rather than blaming providers for their actions.
Jason Oppenheim, owner of Oppenheim Real Estate Group, discusses the effects of the California wildfires on local real estate markets on “The Big Money Show.”
“It frustrates me to see these celebrities superficially attacking insurance companies. It’s like clickbait virtue signaling,” he said. “Does anyone like insurance companies? No, probably not. But standing there and superficially blaming the insurance companies, you know why the insurance companies left California? Because our politicians, in all their infinite wisdom, ordered that they not be allowed to raise rates, and [insurance companies] lost billions of dollars due to previous fires. »
“What do you expect from them? Come here and insure us at ridiculously low rates while they pay billions of dollars in damages?” » asked the broker. “It’s stupidity on top of stupidity. What we need to do is figure out why they left.”
One of the Golden State’s most profitable real estate leaders – along with an official letter signed by more than 45 others – claims the plan for the California fair would have to increase its liability from the current $3 million to $6 million to adequately insure homes in the Palisades and Malibu.
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Pierre Debbas, managing partner of Romer Debbas, says the economic consequences of California’s wildfires will continue to be an “unfortunate story.”
“Most of the houses in Malibu couldn’t even get insurance because California wouldn’t offer it. So it seems kind of misleading that California isn’t willing to cover them, but then they blame the insurance companies. ‘insurance,’ Oppenheim said.
“Let’s bring in more insurance companies. Let’s create an efficient market. Let’s let California enter the insurance market. It’s not complicated. There’s so much incompetence. It’s frustrating.”
