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When Allison Weinsweig, 67, rented out her luxury Westwood apartment to a tenant in 2020, she never expected it to become a nearly three-year ordeal, much less one that would cost her more than $200,000.
It was “taxing on so many levels,” she told Business Insider.
“I felt so hurt,” she added. “I didn’t think I could save him. I thought I had to be with him for the rest of my life.”
When Weinswig was finally able to enter her property in April, she said she found it in such eerie disarray that she ran out crying.
Images provided to BI show bloody floors, cracked countertops and, eerily, a life-sized doll.
An image provided to Business Insider appears to show a human doll next to a bundle of zip ties in Allison Weinsweig’s apartment. The photo was taken in April of this year.
Courtesy of Allison Weinsweig
She now has to pick up the pieces and pay thousands of dollars in repairs, according to contractor estimates seen by BI. On top of that, she says she’s already lost more than $170,000 in unpaid rent.
Mr. Weinswig, a semi-retired real estate broker, bought the two-bedroom penthouse. In 2004, they bought a home on Wilshire Boulevard and lived there for 10 years before moving to Pennsylvania with their ailing mother.
She had previously rented to two other tenants without any issues and expected Ramin Kohanim’s rental to be similar.
“He seemed like a good tenant,” she said, noting that the rental agency had screened him and provided a Social Security number, an acceptable credit score and a bank account with significant funds.
But Weinswig said that even if there had been “red flags,” she probably would have missed them because she was so focused on her mother’s recovery.
Kohanim’s first year of her lease was uneventful, though she did make some late payments, she explained. But after she signed her second year lease in July 2021, things got chaotic.
“He paid the first month and then nothing after that,” Weinsweig alleges.
Kohanim and his lawyer did not respond to BI’s requests for comment.
Weinsweig said she took legal action in January 2022 after not receiving rent for months, despite multiple excuses.
According to legal documents reviewed by BI, the tenant was covered by the COVID-19 Tenant Relief Act, which bans evictions for non-payment of rent for people in hardship due to the pandemic.
After Kohanim’s application for rental assistance was approved, Weinsweig received a portion of her lost rent and the case was automatically dismissed that summer.
Later that year, Weinsweig filed another lawsuit seeking ownership of the building and monetary damages, but it did not go as planned.
After declining to pursue a lawyer and a lawsuit, she eventually rehired her first lawyer and waited for Los Angeles County’s eviction ban to expire in March 2023.
It took months of deliberations for the parties to reach a settlement, but under the terms of the consent decree: In November 2023, Kohanim was ordered to leave by April of this year.
According to legal documents reviewed by BI, Weinsweig agreed to pay the tenant $20,000., Half of that amount was to be held in trust and paid only after he vacated the property and complied with the terms and conditions.
Although she felt this was unfair, Weinsweig thought this would be closure, she said.
Cohanim left the property in April, and Weinsweig claims the previous tenant has yet to return the keys and key fob, but that was the least of her concerns.
According to records reviewed by BI, at a hearing held in Los Angeles County Superior Court in California on May 23, Weinswig testified in court that the apartment was in “extremely poor” conditions.
She told BI and the court that when she arrived at the property there were cigarette burns and rubbish everywhere and what appeared to be bloodstains on the bedroom and bathroom floors.
Photos provided by Allison Weinsweig appear to show bloodstains on the bathroom floor of her apartment.
Courtesy of Allison Weinsweig
Images provided to BI and the court appear to show the extent of the damage.
Other images provided to BI also show a life-size doll on the bathroom floor next to cable ties – it’s unclear why it was there.
Repairs could cost more than $24,000, according to estimates from contractors that Weinsweig provided to BI.
During the hearing, Kohanim admitted that the mattress had “leaked,” but the defendant and his lawyers dismissed the remaining damage as being due to normal “wear and tear.”
The defence did not suggest at the hearing that the images were staged or unreliable.
Mr Kohanim’s lawyer told the court his client was not the “best resident in the world” or the cleanest, but denied claims the apartment had been deliberately vandalised.
The judge disagreed, saying “80 square feet of bloodstain is not normal wear and tear.”
He ordered Weinsweig to return the withheld $10,000 and disclose the incident.
Weinsweig said she wanted to publicize her case to raise awareness of her ordeal, and to her, it’s a small victory worth holding on to.
“When it was unsealed, I felt vindicated because not only had I been subjected to this injustice, but I had been forced to keep it secret,” she said, adding, “This should not go unnoticed.”