DWP Told to Serve Renters Despite Debts of Landlords : Utilities: A Superior Court judge writes a new policy for single-family houses that takes effect Sunday. A West Hills couple filed suit in 1991.

A judge has ordered the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to supply utilities to qualified renters upon request even if their landlord has fallen into arrears.

Under a new DWP policy written by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs, the department will no longer seek to pressure the owners of rental properties into paying their bills by refusing to turn on utilities for their tenants. The new policy, which a DWP spokeswoman said still was being developed, is to go into effect Sunday.

Janavs’ ruling, which applies to single-family houses, was part of a judgment issued earlier this month against the department in a 1991 lawsuit involving two West Hills residents. A 1987 city ordinance outlawed similar DWP debt collection tactics at apartment buildings with a single water meter.

Attorney David Pallack, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Charity and Robert Cook, called the collection policy “grossly unfair.”

“I just don’t see how a government agency can operate that way,” said Pallack, director of litigation for San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Legal Services of Pacoima. Referring to the tenants affected by the policy, he said: “These people are not responsible for another person’s bill, yet the DWP, in effect, forces them to pay it, to get essential utilities.”

The case arose in May, 1991, when the Cooks rented a house but were unable to have the utilities turned on. Contending that the owner of the house had racked up more than $2,700 in unpaid bills, the DWP refused to supply the utilities until the account was brought current.

The water and power were turned on about 10 days later after the Cooks obtained a court order. Earlier this month, Janavs ordered the DWP to pay the Cooks $5,000 in damages and $20,000 for their legal fees.

Assistant City Atty. David Oliphant said the Cooks’ case was unusual because the landlord not only had failed to pay his bills, he had illegally tapped in to the city’s power system. Oliphant said department officials suspected at the time that the Cooks were cooperating with the landlord, but later determined that they also were being victimized.

Oliphant said that the case was unusual and that it was not department policy to routinely refuse service to renters at single-family residences where owners’ bills were delinquent. During litigation, however, the department sought to win the right to continue that practice.

“We were trying to establish that the policy could be permitted but, understand, that was not the general policy of the department,” Oliphant said.

A similar DWP collection policy covering apartment houses that are not individually metered was changed in 1987 when the City Council voted 13 to 0 to allow the department to place tax liens on properties where utility bills become delinquent. Before the ordinance, the DWP had shut off utilities to thousands of apartment buildings annually to try to force owners to pay what they owed.

Oliphant said the tax lien ordinance does not apply to single-family houses.