The cat-and-mouse game landlord Dario Pini has been playing with city inspectors for decades — doing work on his many properties and often dodging permits — seems to be now played with his court-appointed receiver. William Hoffman was assigned by Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Colleen Sterne in April 2018 to take control of seven of Pini's rental properties and one hotel to bring them up to code. Hoffman's receivership reports for June contain an accounting of the rents received and expenses paid, and also 211 pages of violations — 1,950 in all, of which about 100 have been "cured." The violations range from bedbugs and cockroaches to broken windows and new interior walls.
Hoffman's task has been to find a contractor or contractors to fix the rest, a process described by the judge as having "hiccups" along the way, such as 600 violations the city forgot to tell Hoffman about, having to replace all the keys , and city inspectors missing the contractors bidding tours. One milestone passed is that the tours were made; bids are due August 6.
Hoffman's company, Trigild, is also acting as property manager, which Pini and his attorney Paul Burns have taken great exception to, claiming Hoffman charges 400 percent the going rate. Hoffman is billing $500 per "door" for the apartments and hotel under his receivership, a charge that contains the receiver's duties, as well as the management of assets, property, and construction, or roughly $60,000 per month. Burns insists any reputable Santa Barbara property manager would charge 5 percent of rents, or about $9,000 per month total.