Sk Management Company

SK Management deserves a negative rating – they are much worse than I could ever have imagined or believed possible.
They installed «alarms» in the hallways of this senior building, one alarm for each hallway with six apartments. The «alarms» have the word FIRE painted on them, but they are not fire alarms. Management claims that they are super-​sensitive smoke alarms that can detect when a tenant is smoking in any of the six nearby apartments, or an apartment has a small amount of cooking smoke too small to set off one of the normal smoke alarms in each apartment, and that whenever the silent alarm notifies the manager, it constitutes an «emergency» and she is required to enter or send a staff member to enter all six apartments.
The only time the manager, Michele Porter, claimed that the alarm went off, a security guard knocked on my door and said that the alarm had detected smoking in the vicinity of my apartment. Since I have not yet been forced to sign a no-​smoking lease, I am still legally allowed to smoke in my apartment as I have for the past 13 years, and I told him so. I opened my door so he could see there was no problem. The next day I asked the manager what that was about and she said that she had sent him to investigate all six apartments near that alarm. I asked if she had found whatever had set off the alarm and she said they had not. Then her supervisor, Anita Chern, said that the alarms were so sensitive that even a gnat could set them off. So I asked if my smoking was setting off the alarm several times a day and Ms. Porter told me that my smoking had never set off the alarm.
So does the alarm detect cigarette smoke or not? Another time I left the rice on too long and it burned a bit on the bottom, but the smoke from that didn’t set off the super-​sensitive alarm either.
However management did learn that I have a door jammer that prevents anyone with a master key or an electronic lock pick from entering my apartment while I’m asleep or in the shower. I bought it after another tenant woke up to find an intruder in his apartment. Management wants me to get rid of the door jammer because there might be an emergency when I was unconscious or dead and emergency personnel have to break down the door. As alternatives, they suggested that I purchase insurance to cover the cost of the door or use a security device that would not prevent anyone from entering but would alert me to the fact that somebody had already entered. This is a pretext, because should the door have to be broken down in such a situation, the owners can recoup the cost of the door twice, once from their insurance and again from my security deposit, and I cannot purchase insurance to cover the cost of a door that I do not own.
I looked up the HUD regulations and all other laws and regulations before I bought the door jammer. My door jammer is not an unauthorized alteration or modification to the premises, allows me to leave quickly in an emergency, cannot mar or damage the floor or the door, and complies with all HUD, city, county, state, and federal laws and regulations.
The problem here is that the «alarms» are not capable of sensing anything that would constitute a bona fide emergency. Neither a tenant smoking, nor a small amount of cooking smoke too small to set off a normal smoke alarm, nor a gnat landing on an alarm in the hallway, is a bona fide emergency. And the right to enter a tenant’s apartment without advance notice is reserved for bona fide emergencies, not gnats. The right to privacy and to be secure in one’s person and property is protected by the Constitution and the only exception is for public officers and employees such as the police and fire department in the course of their work responding to a bona fide emergency. SK Management is a private company, as are their security guards, and do not qualify as public emergency personnel.
I would be extremely interested in hearing from other tenants of senior buildings managed by SK Management, particularly where Anita Chern was supervisor and Michele Porter was the building manager, specifically regarding incidents where management entered an apartment without advance notice or proper cause, and/​or «discovered» that a tenant had «committed suicide.»
I apologize if this may sound paranoid, but I’m 75 years old and have seen a lot in my lifetime, including murders staged to appear to be suicides so as to avoid investigation. The only reason that I can think of that management would need such absurd pretexts to enter a unit while the tenant is asleep or in the shower and doesn’t answer the door immediately, is to «eliminate» that tenant and stage it to appear as a suicide. I am in daily contact with friends and visit my case workers (both a social worker and a nurse) at the senior center several times a week so that everyone can see that I am happy, love my life, and am not in the least suicidal.

Unfortunately, this company is not equipped with staff knowledgeable of tenant laws and fair housing rights. Their corporate office is in Woodland Hills. Upon renting from one of their low income buildings I was later prescribed a therapy animal. The management tried to treat my reasonable accommodations request as a pet application. Initially, they tried to ignore my request. It took me pressing them daily and notifying them I was bringing the animal home to get a response from them… an angry response. To be reasonable, I left the animal for another week with foster care then again notified them I was bringing the animal. Same angry response followed. I informed them I had followed the law and provided them with exactly what the law requires. With this stated, they finally came up with paperwork they wished me to complete. The paperwork was full of illegal questions and information. They then told me I could not have the animal until they approved the request. I made the request 3 weeks prior. This is how long it took them to come up with an application to give me! How much longer would the approval take?! I informed them there was nowhere to keep the animal. So, they proceeded by serving me a 3 day notice to get rid of the animal or move out. I responded appropriately and also filed immediately with the Housing Rights Center. Of course they knew they had no leg to stand on so I was not evicted after the 3 days. Once my doctor completed their illegal form, they tried to tell the doctor the information provided wasn’t sufficient — nope, not true. In fact, they were already asking more than permitted by law. I told my doctor not to respond. Once they realized their tactics weren’t going to intimidate me into withdrawing my request (they count on the fact that low income residents will fear losing their low income housing and bully you to make you go away), they finally provided an approval. But get this! The approval came with contingencies — which is not an approval at all! lol. I refused to accept the contingencies. I took my support animal to the community room for a community meeting and they told me I was violating company policy and I was not permitted to have the animal in common areas. I informed the manager — again — their policies were in violation of the FHA. What they don’t realize is every time they refuse to let me take my animal to community events, the punitive damages they are going to pay out in the legal suit rack up.
Christopher Galdamez — apartment Manager
Anita Chern — Supervisor
Christopher White — Executive Director
Akenazy Development — Building Owner
I certainly hope building owners pay attention. This is going to cost you.

If I could give 0 stars I would. This management company is the worst, they never fix anything and don’t care about helping out at all. They have no respect for their tenants and their buildings. If you are looking for an appt/​condo don’t ever rent or buy from a building that is run by SK Management Company, you will 100% regret it.