Read the Tenant Association’s Open Letter to Property Owners in the Independent

Tenants just want the right to continue living in their homes, have issues fixed in a timely manner, and invite the owners to come to the table to negotiate with them collectively. Read more here.

Local news media thus far have only implicated Koto Group President James Knapp in the ongoing abuses that 215 Bath LLC owners and investors have engaged in against tenants at the 52 unit building on 215 Bath Street. Journalists who have reported on this issue seem not to have looked up the CA Secretary of State filings which show that members of 215 Bath LLC, formed in June 2023, are:

• Koto Group President James Knapp

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• Layline, Inc President and Radius Group Vice President Austin Herlihy

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• Saddle Rock Real Estate Co. President and Radius Group Associate Broker Chris Parker (Saddle Rock Real Estate Co. was renamed Parker Real Estate Group)

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And a close associate to 215 Bath LLC according to the filings is:

• West Beach Rental Partners, LLC manager, Timothy Morton-Smith

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The relationship between 215 Bath LLC and West Beach Rental Partners, LLC is that as a team they took out a $6.5 million loan from Montecito Bank & Trust and were both named in the deed transfer document in state filings. It is important that any news media investigating and reporting on matters related to this property moving forward speak not just to James Knapp, but also to Chris Parker, Austin Herlihy, and Timothy Morton-Smith.

Mass traumatization, retaliation, and harassment

One of 215 Bath LLC and gang’s first actions after taking possession of 215 Bath Street was to fire the onsite property manager, Merlinda Goddard, who managed the property for 22 years, telling her to never talk about the experience with anyone. 

“She raised her children there. Her kindness, care, and generosity of spirit brought the residents of Bath Street together. When escrow closed on the apartment building last month, Merlinda, who innocently signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement with Koto Property Management, was given 30 days to vacate the premises,” writes tenant Dein Sofley in her reflective piece about living at 215 Bath called This Is What Community Looks Like.

California law 25 CCR § 42 requires an onsite manager for rental housing of more than 16 units. A landlord failing to do so can be found “guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000) or by imprisonment not exceeding six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment,” according to the Law Offices of Stimmel, Stimmel & Roeser. 

Knapp, Parker, Herlihy & Morton-Smith could easily each throw $250 together to pay the $1,000 fine, but would they get along inside a jail cell together for six months? Unfortunately, the firing of onsite property managers is a common early tactic for new owners and managers and one which neither our local District Attorney nor City Attorney’s Office has ever prosecuted! Koto Group has done this before, Sierra Property Management did it recently, and all these companies will continue doing it because it creates chaos and disturbance, which makes tenants “choose” – read: forced – to leave. Once they’re gone, landlords double the rent.

After firing the beloved onsite manager of 22 years, the owners began immediately issuing notices telling tenants their leases wouldn’t be renewed. There were numerous flaws with these notices making them altogether invalid (see SB Independent report for the City Attorney’s perspective), and Koto Group has done this exact thing many times this year.

The flawedness of these notices is not a careless mistake, but part of a systematic strategy of intimidation and misinformation used by slumlords trying to displace tenants and squeeze out more profit than the excessive amounts allowable by law. By giving tenants false information about their rights, and by omitting important and legally required facts tenants need to know, you can get them out quicker and cheaper than by following the rules. 

This predatory practice is what Core Spaces did to the nearly 1,000 tenants in Isla Vista earlier this year in an even more blatant and hostile way. That made national headlines, but it’s a practice we see fly under the radar horrendously often. At CBC & The Sweeps, roughly 90% of tenants self-evicted after they received false information by Core Spaces. At 215 Bath Street, as of this writing, only about 30% of tenants self evicted due to these notices as well as the retaliatory aftermath that came next but as the retaliation and harassment persists, that percentage may climb.

Tenants Organize – Koto Retaliates

Tenants began talking together and organized a meeting around the pool with SBTU members who have also experienced renovictions and various forms of landlord abuse. Everyone shared information, grievances, hopes, and began the preliminary steps toward a plan which included unifying as a tenant association and advocating for stronger eviction protections at upcoming meetings at City Hall.

The next day, new owners put “closed” signs around the pool area in retaliation against tenants for engaging in protected activity to organize. This show of intimidation was demoralizing and terrifying for some, and many contacted the mysterious and still unidentified person running “” to understand the “reasoning” behind this decision. Apparently, it was because the health department forced them to:

But when asked, the health department said there was nothing from their recent inspection that indicated the pool needed to be closed. This became one of numerous instances in which tenants learned quickly that “Koto Group” or whoever they were actually talking to in these emails, was intent on engaging in deliberately retaliatory behavior and then lying extensively about what they were doing. For many tenants this has felt psychologically abusive, and one tenant stated this reminds them what a past abusive relationship felt like. 

Tenants Mobilize and More Koto Shenanigans

Tenants began understanding what was going to keep happening if they didn’t do something, so they mobilized the very next Tuesday to ask the SB city council to pass stronger eviction protections which include strong anti-harassment provisions so this would not happen to them or any other tenants within the city anymore.

New owners then tore out trees planted by tenants many years ago which bore fruit enjoyed by the onsite community. Bathtubs in two units became clogged and the mystery professional running 215bathstreet gmail said the tenant would have to hire a plumbing company because it is “prohibited by the lease” for the landlord to take care of this. Next, “Koto” informed tenants about roofing work they would be performing soon because of “leaks” which tenants said they had never experienced. Two tenants who spoke at city hall had large holes put in their ceilings exposing them to the elements for 9 days, by roofers who had come to “fix the roof.” After 7 days of the gaping hole in the ceiling, one tenant asked if they could at least put a tarp over the hole so they aren’t exposed to the elements and the mystery emailer said “It is important for there to be air flow, so a tarp will not resolve this issue.”

In mid-December, tenants were told by SoCal gas that the bill had not been paid and so gas would be shut off on Jan. 2. The mystery emailer said when tenants informed them of this that it was the “first they had heard of it,” and later that “The utility had the incorrect mailing address for invoices.” Whoops! Probably just another honest mistake, like the 30 day notices issued to tenants that were out of compliance with local and state laws in numerous ways. 

Call to Action

As of this writing, tenants are still trying to get a name and phone number for this person and the mystery person has ignored every request to this effect. During a recent inspection by “Koto Group staff,” when tenants asked who the three people who came to “inspect” their units were, they refused to identify themselves. At a recent BBQ held by the tenants onsite, one woman who already took the $5,000 buyout offer and was securing rental housing in another city. It would have hugely negative effects on her, being away from her daughter and granddaughter, no longer being able to provide childcare for her daughter, and losing the community she had in Santa Barbara. But she reported having daily panic attacks since 215 Bath LLC took over due to the threats, retaliation, intimidation, and that the medications she already takes for anxiety and depression were not working effectively due the the severity of the stress caused. She said she supports tenants wanting to stay and fight, but worries it will “kill her” if she stays, knowing what new owners are intent on doing to everyone, due to her old age and health conditions.

The tenants have become desperate and wish for the broader community to ask the 215 Bath LLC owners on Wednesday January 3rd to please STOP this insanity and start treating these tenants with the dignity and respect they deserve!

Relevant state filings showing owners beyond just Koto president James Knapp: