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Daily Planet Staff 

Grace Christie and Jill Hutchby have made their home in a south Berkeley apartment building for 30 years. First they shared a large studio, then they moved into a more spacious two-bedroom unit with a spectacular view of the bay. 

“This has been home for us,” said Hutchby, 65. She and Christy, 78, have been told to move by their building’s new owner, who said he wants to move into their apartment. 

Although a 30-day notice was tended more than a month ago, property owner Anatole Olczak may be having second thoughts, said Berkeley attorney Michael Sims, who represents the landlord. 

“He cares. He’s not mean and heartless,” Sims said. Olczak was not aware that Hutchby and Christie were seniors when he 

presented them with the eviction notice, Sims said. “Maybe it can be postponed.” 

Christie is a former teacher in the Berkeley and Oakland schools, and a former receptionist at UC Berkeley. Hutchby is a retired secretary and former small-business owner. 

They say they live on limited incomes. Until recently, both worked a few hours each day delivering the Daily Planet. 

They had a dream of visiting England, Hutchby’s homeland, which she had not visited in 20 years. They had purchased cheap tickets to London for a March trip. 

But all plans changed Feb. 21. Hutchby remembers the door buzzer sounding. The resident manager was there. He said he’d come to introduce Christie and Hutchby to the new building owner. Olczak immediately told the pair he wanted to move into their apartment with his two children. 

“Then he handed us an eviction notice,” Hutchby said. “We were absolutely stunned.” 

Hutchby and Christie rent their two-bedroom apartment for $680 and pay a $30 fee for the use of the garage. A similar apartment directly below them, leased a year ago, rents for $1,400, plus $85 for the garage, Hutchby said. 

Under the state vacancy decontrol law, when apartments are vacated voluntarily, the apartment owner can set the rent as high as the market will bear. 

Hutchby points out that their old studio was available at the time she was given the 30-day notice, but that the landlord did not offer it to them. 

“We don’t want to be unreasonable, if the man has a family,” Hutchby said. 

Hutchby and Christie are being assisted by attorney Laura Lane from the East Bay Community Law Center. 

“We have reason to believe that the landlord may not be intending to move in,” Lane said, explaining that the center has looked at the owner’s affluent lifestyle and does not believe he would actually live with two children in a two-bedroom apartment across from People’s Park. 

She said she’s waiting for Olczak to file the formal eviction notice. If he does, she will take the case to court and represent Hutchby and Christie. 

“A jury will have to decide if he is intending to move in,” she said. 

Sims said that there is no question that it has been his client’s intention to live in the apartment with his daughters, 15 and 10. The teen-ager, in particular, would love to live near Telegraph Avenue, he said. 

The studio that had been available is currently rented, Sims said. “It did not occur to the owner that they would be interested,” he said. 

Defending the character of his client, Sims pointed to a former resident manager of the building who is an elderly woman. “He could have raised her rent, but did not,” Sims said. 

Sims said his client believes something may be able to be worked out. 

“We will be meeting with them,” he said.