Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board

One word, malevolent organization.
But do Your own research.
I recommend stay as far away as You can from them.

The Berkeley Rent Board is an invaluable resource and everyone in Berkeley should use it. The counselors are friendly and extremely knowledgeable about tenants’ rights and how to exercise them. Beyond guiding you through the courts, they are also knowledgeable about other ways to resolve disputes. Like the other reviewers, I have also had to deal with a malicious slumlord, and in any other city it would have been ten times as difficult. Cheers and keep fighting the good fight.

This place is a godsend for tenants. The counselors are competent, responsive, and helpful.

The board is easy to reach — you can get to a counselor fairly quickly. They seem to mean well, yet I keep having odd experiences with them.
I am a tenant myself, also house hunting. They were full of dire warning about tenants’ power, when I called to ask how to handle existing tenants when buying. I can understand that — basically I have stopped looking for multi-​units in Berkely — it’s not worth it — the tenants have so much power you’d be taking your life in your hands to start dealing with that issue.
But when I called about an issue of my own with my ever so awful landlady — repairs were not being handled properly — they really had little idea of my rights, and told me I could not get a repair done and take it out of my rent. I was only calling to get confirmation, so I looked it up and sure enough CA law provided explicitly for my repairs — stating that they were mandatory requirements for any rental space. So of course I could get them done and take the payment out of the rent. Big Duh — that’s rental law 101 anywhere.
Also — I expressed my preference for getting another counselor, politely explaining that the one I had was a nice guy but not my favorite (he was curt and impatient a lot.) Although they agreed to switch me, the intake guy left his phone line on and I heard him tell the new counselor that I ‘didn’t like’ the one I had. They both laughed at me, and said how weird it was that the man I didn’t want to work with was ‘so fun’ around their office. Oh great — yeah that would make him a good counselor — a sense of humor and the urge to make everyone laugh. I’m so glad — but you will not necessarily like all of them as much as they like each other.

I am writing to commend Will Chau, apartment manager for Reza Valiyee of the 2731 Haste St. apartment complex. Will has demonstrated competence, integrity and a very strong work ethic that makes in him a wonderful partner in the often very difficult business of apartment renting. Will was a big reason we decided to proceed forward with the rental. I would say that Will is a tremendous asset to Mr. Valiyee.

Aida B.

For someone in my situation as one of only 2 tenants in a unit neighboring our unfriendly landlord, the counselors here have helped to clarify and resolve countless disputes.
They know the state and local laws, and they are very good at interpreting your lease and informing you of your rights.
When a Berkeley landlord unfairly threatened to evict me, it was good to hear the counselor at the rent board telling me that that he/​she is nuts. Also they were legally in the wrong, and the counselor gave me the forms to request a housing inspection and a decrease in rent.
The counselors keep records of your visits, as well as the rental unit involved.
Nice hard working folks. Thank you City of Berkeley!

I lived in on of Reza’a houses in 2008, when we first moved in we had some problems. I called his maintenance men and they were there the next day taking care of my list. After that all was fine, I broke a window in my room and it got fixed for free. I am a painter and I spilled a lot of paint on the floor, but I got my deposite back with only 25 $ taken off. After 2008 I moved to another Reza property in which I now reside. We have gardens and a wonderful yard, Reza cruises by every now and then and waves. Indeed, Reza is a funny guy and I can see how he could easily be misinterpreted. The fact of the matter is that he rents properties moslty to college kids, who trash the residence and leave after their lease is up. If you just pay him and get past the fact that he is very eccentric, I feel that dealing with Reza can actually be pretty fun.

Following a fire in my apartment building I asked the landlord for a rent reduction, as I was due, for the weeks afterward when heat and hot water were off. He refused, and instead I got a call from the Berkeley Rent Stabilization board asking if I’d be willing to go in for a mediation.
So I went in for what I thought was going to be a piece of cake meeting. But then the Rent Board people themselves tried to low-​ball me. I was shocked. Afterward, when I asked for everything in writing, they wouldn’t do it, no explanation. When I got fed up and looked up the laws myself, I found out that they’d attempted to give me less the absolute minimum I was due by law.
There’s something really fishy going on there. I wouldn’t have figured the mediators themselves would try to swindle me, but goes to show. You have to know the laws. And you can’t necessarily trust the people who work there to help you out. It sucks.

The Berkeley Rent Board is a great place to call if you are having landlord/​tenant issues. All the counselors are very friendly and great listeners who make the effort to understand your housing issues. Berkeley is an overcrowded, dog-​eat-​dog city for housing, and it is because of the service and function of this organization that many tenants and landlords are helped.
(it’s shocking the exorbitant rates landlords in the city charge, as well as some of the fairly ridiculous living conditions for places rented out).

Rent stabilization gives you good advice on how to proceed and what your options are. You generally have the law on your side as Berkeley is into tenant’s rights.
I too dealt with Reza Valiyee. To cut a long story short, he basically duped my roommates and I into an informal agreement with the new tenants, then bilked them into a double deposit, they sued us (killing my credit in the process), and we had to sue him. In the end, we got our money back. But it was such a hassle. Reza will do as much as he can to drag on the court case until the college students move away. Do not rent from him. Take him to court if you are swindled by him — the Berkeley courts hate him and know him because he is a drain on the local judicial system. He is a notorious slumlord millionaire in Berkeley.

I am in the middle of a similar experience with Mr. Reza Valiyee
avoid him. all of his properties are horrible, you won’t get your deposit back without a fight, the managers are always MIA.
really a horrible experience.
i plan on contacting the Rent Stabilization Board.