In the Umpqua lawsuit,
the bank alleges that Kihagi defaulted on her loans on three San Francisco buildings. Kihagi alleges that the bank intentionally avoided accepting her payments. That litigation is unrelated to her ongoing fight with the SF City Attorney’s office and her own renters.
The Kihagi drama dates to May 2017, when the city successfully sued Kihagi for tenant harassment on such a level that it provoked a record-breaking $2.4 million in fines.
Her liability to the city has since risen to $7 million, and the charges of abuses, like threatening a tenant’s cat and badgering one couple so persistently that they broke up, earned her the moniker of the city’s “cruelest landlord.”
In August, the courts ordered that Kihagi stop managing several buildings she owns because the judge doesn’t trust her to obey court orders.
Previously, the city auctioned off several of Kihagi’s buildings, and told her tenants to pay rent to City Hall instead of her, all part of an elaborate, years-long plan to try to collect on the money she owes.
In years past, Kihagi has been
jailed in Southern California and picketed by her own tenants to protest both alleged and confirmed abuses.
Kihagi still owns several buildings in San Francisco, mostly in the Mission and Dolores Heights.
At one point Kihagi owned more than 50 precious rent-controlled units in the city, a portfolio worth roughly $24 million
