Some landlords in Southern California are discovering the costly reality of unlicensed cannabis dispensaries occupying retail spaces and stopping rent payments.
After her husband passed away, Lillian Maimone rented out an Altadena storefront that had been used for storage. She found a tenant who claimed they were opening a clothing store and even shared a link to another store they said they operated in Santa Monica. Her son, Thomas Maimone, later discovered that virtually everything the tenants submitted to secure the lease—including bank records, references, and the claimed Santa Monica store—was fraudulent.
Once they moved in, the tenants opened an illegal cannabis dispensary and immediately stopped paying over $6,000 per month in rent, ultimately costing the Maimone family tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
Eviction attorney Avi Sinai says this is part of a business model for some illegal dispensaries. “What these enterprising operations figured out is that, ‘Well, let’s just go through the eviction process.’ All they need is seven, eight months on the property, and it’s seven figures” in profits.
Read more about this story on KCRW Reports here.
