I don’t know if this is a thing in other parts of the country but here in California Accessory Dwelling Unit’s are very much a popular idea. Basically, an ADU is like a small detached home which you build in your backyard and you can then rent that space to someone else. As California’s ADU Handbook explains, this is all part of a statewide effort to do something about the housing crisis.

California’s housing production is not keeping pace with demand. In the last decade, fewer than half of the homes needed to keep up with the population growth were built. Additionally, new homes are often constructed away from job-rich areas. This lack of housing that meets people’s needs is impacting affordability and causing average housing costs, particularly for renters in California, to rise significantly. As affordable housing becomes less accessible, people drive longer distances between housing they can afford and their workplace or pack themselves into smaller shared spaces, both of which reduce quality of life and produce negative environmental impacts…

There is a shortage of affordable units, and the units that are available can be out of reach for many people. Homeowners can construct an ADU on their lot or convert an underutilized part of their home into a JADU. This flexibility benefits both renters and homeowners, who can receive extra monthly rental income while also contributing to meeting state housing production goals.

So that’s the pitch. Build a mini-home out back and you can make money off the rental and help the state with its housing crisis. But there are risks anytime you invite a stranger to live on your property. That was certainly the case for a homeowner in LA who rented out his ADU on Airbnb until he rented to a tenant who refused to leave.

Sascha Jovanovic should be living the good life in his private estate perched in the hills of Brentwood, enjoying the spoils of a successful career in periodontics.

But instead, he says he’s scared to walk to his car because there’s a woman who won’t leave his guesthouse. She says she has the right to stay. So far a judge has ruled that, under the city’s rent stabilization ordinance, he has no legal reason to evict her.

When Elizabeth Hirschhorn’s Airbnb stay ended in April 2022, she simply didn’t move out. She’s been living there rent-free ever since, and she refused to budge unless Jovanovic paid her a relocation fee of $100,000, according to a settlement offer reviewed by The Times.

It all started when Jovanovic (that’s him above) agreed to rent the ADU to Hirschhorn for a six-month stay. Everything seemed fine at first but when she complained that the electric blinds in the rental had broken, Jovanovic went inside and discovered mold around the sink which hadn’t been there before. He offered to move her into a nice hotel for a few days so he could have workers come in and fix the sink.

Hirschhorn declined, writing, “I don’t feel safe being forced to vacate with a housing disability and the high risks of Covid-19 complications.” She cited L.A. County’s Covid-19 Tenant Protections Resolution and a 2011 doctor’s note pointing out her extreme chemical sensitivities…

The back-and-forth lasted through the end of Hirschhorn’s Airbnb stay on March 19, 2022.

When it was clear she wasn’t leaving, or allowing any access inside, the two informally agreed that she could stay until April 12 so she could find another place, according to an email cited in Jovanovic’s complaint.

And that act of kindness (giving her a bit more time to find a place to go) turned out to be a major mistake. The moment Jovanovic agreed to extend the deadline without payment, Airbnb washed its hands of the situation, deeming it a 3rd party matter.

Hirschhorn then discovered another mistake Jovanovic had made. He had not applied for a permit to add a shower to his ADU and had not received approval for occupancy from the city. The city building inspector concluded that Jovanovic could not evict his non-paying tenant until his ADU was in compliance. That meant making repairs inside the unit but Hirschhorn wouldn’t let him in to make the repairs. It’s a Catch-22. As of now, the ADU is still not compliant.

Both Jovanovic and Hirschhorn have hired lawyers and are now suing one another. She hasn’t paid him any rent for over a year. In a settlement offer she agreed to leave if Jovanovic paid her $100,000. He refused and there are several complaints and counter-complaints ongoing. Jovanovic says if he ever gets to evict his unwanted tenant he won’t be renting out the ADU anymore it will just become a play area for his adolescent kids.

Finally, the Daily Mail is reporting today that Hirschhorn was kicked out of a similarly ritzy residence in Oakland, CA just two months before moving into Jovanovic’s ADU in Brentwood. There too, there were lawsuits filed by both parties.

Tenant from hell Elizabeth Hirschhorn was kicked out of a $2.6million rental in Oakland, California, less than two months before moving into the ritzy Brentwood guesthouse she has since refused to leave, DailyMail.com can reveal…

Court filings reveal the current Brentwood tenant-landlord dispute is strikingly similar to the Oakland case, which also saw Hirschhorn embroiled in a dispute over cleaning, with the man from whom she initially sublet the property moving out due to her ‘hostile behavior’, leaving her alone in the house where she continued to stay despite having no tenancy agreement and paying no rent…

In the end, the case was settled after more than two years of wrangling in April with Hirschhorn forced to admit that she is on the hook for $19,037.96 plus costs and ordered to repay the money in installments of $541.67 per month.

So maybe there’s hope this will be resolved eventually in Jovanovic’s favor. What a nightmare situation.