Oakland Sues La Peralta Apartment Owners Over Elevator Outages, Livability Issues
Unable to assist because of her own mobility issues, Kathy Vaquilar called 911 last summer when her husband fell in their Oakland apartment.
Because there was no working elevator in their building, however, paramedics had to strap the 80-year-old Richard Johnson into something like a tarp to bring him down four flights of stairs.
That elevator outage at La Peralta in downtown Oakland lasted 52 days, from June 28 to Aug. 18, 2025. In a complaint filed Aug. 11 against the building’s owners and operators, City Attorney Ryan Richardson notes that variations of Vaquilar and Johnson’s ordeal were experienced by many of the 93 residential units.
“You have the situation where there are people with mobility issues that are on the fourth, fifth, and sixth floors of this building, and they didn’t have easy ways to take care of their basic needs, to go outside, to do their laundry, to take their trash out,” Richardson said. “And if there was an emergency, they were at the mercy of folks getting to them, as opposed to them being able to evacuate easily.”
Filed in Alameda County Superior Court, the suit by the city attorney notes that La Peralta’s elevator problems were so pervasive that the Oakland Fire Department had to free tenants trapped in elevators 14 times between 2024 and 2025.
A spokesperson for the fire department called such frequency very uncommon.
“The Summer 2025 elevator outage was not an isolated incident at La Peralta; it is part of Defendants’ dangerous pattern of refusing to conduct regular maintenance of their elevators, causing repeated emergency rescue events,” the complaint states.
Richardson’s suit names as defendants 184 13th Street Associates, which owns La Peralta; the Mosser Companies, which runs it; and CEO Neveo Mosser. The Mosser Companies is one of Northern California’s largest housing providers.
The lawsuit alleges that Neveo Mosser runs both of the named companies and used the corporate ownership structure to “insulate himself from the liabilities connected to his failure to provide habitable living conditions.”
Mosser representatives did not return a request for comment.
Residents said Mosser did not fix La Peralta’s broken passenger and freight elevators until it faced media attention and a city inquiry.
Vaquilar, 68, noted in an interview that the elevator outage occurred while she was taking care of her gravely ill husband in what would be the last summer of his life.
“I was under a lot of stress, too,” Vaquilar said. “Because I had to work full-time and take care of him, as well. And I would come home at lunchtime and check on him.”
Because of her own mobility issues, Vaquilar said every trip home meant an exhausting and sometimes painful climb up to her four flights of stairs.
“If you’re carrying groceries or garbage or laundry, it’s just extra hard. I’d have to take breaks at each of the levels,” Vaquilar said, adding that she’d sometimes have to make multiple trips.
Johnson told ABC7 at the time that he felt trapped in his apartment.
He died this past April.
“I think he would have gone out a lot more… and he needed to go out and get some sunshine,” Vaquilar said. “It definitely impacted his health.”
Counting other habitability issues, the lawsuit alleges that Mosser failed to fix fire damage, structural damage and pest infestations.
Oakland’s Elevator Maintenance Ordinance requires landlords to post a notice any time elevators are out of service and to estimate when they’ll be working again.
Repairs must be completed as soon as reasonably possible.
If elevators are out of service for more than 24 hours, landlords are required to pay to temporarily relocate any tenants who are severely impacted, including those with disabilities.
Richardson said his office is seeking assurances that the elevators will be regularly maintained, that the other habitability issues will be addressed, and that Mosser will offer compensation for the tenants, including any who may have moved out because of the elevator problems.
“We also want to make sure the tenants who were … fulfilling their side of the bargain and paying their rent this entire time, but didn’t receive a habitable, dignified place to live, that they get some restitution,” Richardson said.
Vaquilar is among a group of La Peralta residents who are also pursuing their own lawsuit against Mosser.
“I know that people want compensation,” Vaquilar said. “The compensation would definitely help a lot because they keep raising the rent here … and that’s ridiculous because we’re not getting the kind of service that we should if we’re paying rent on a regular basis.”
The Mosser lawsuit comes a month after Oakland extended its oversight of landlords Baljit Singh Mann and Surinder Mann, members of a family known for owning dozens of properties across the city.
Oakland first sued the Manns and their companies in 2021 for poor living conditions and illegal unit conversions.
That oversight was meant to end this fall, but Richardson’s office accused the Manns of not keeping up with their agreement, and the two sides agreed to extend the arrangement for three years.