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The city is prepared to take control of a student boarding house owned by a landlord notorious for substandard housing. 

Reza Valiyee, who has been charged several times for not maintaining his numerous Berkeley properties, has until Aug. 30 to remove illegal bedrooms at 2455 Prospect St. built more than 20 years ago, City Attorney Zach Cowen said. 

If Valiyee fails to comply with the Superior Court order to remove the rooms, the city will return to court to seek a “receiver,” which empowers the city to take over management of the building. The city could then use rents or other building assets such as a mortgage to pay for court-mandated adjustments. 

“It’s a pretty extreme remedy for a building that isn’t hazardous,” Cowen said. But Valiyee’s long history of stalling on city-mandated repair work has forced the city’s heavy hand, he said. 

Valiyee says that he has not complied with the court order because the city was late in presenting him with plans on how to bring the building into compliance with zoning law. 

“It took the city three years to come up with a plan that I could have done in two months,” Valiyee said. “The whole idea is to put me out of business.” 

The city and Valiyee have fought over the Prospect Street property for years. 

In 1994 the city sued Valiyee to force him to remove bedrooms officials say he built without a zoning permit. After Valiyee failed to comply with several court orders, a judge, in 1998, issued an injunction empowering the city to design a renovation plan that Valiyee would be required to implement. 

Valiyee now says that he wants to implement the plan, but hopes to combine it with a beautification project that would entail the creation of larger third-floor bedrooms and a new roof. 

City officials say the beautification project is just another in a series of stall tactics by the landlord. The beautification work requires Zoning Adjustment Board approval, but Cowan said Valiyee has yet to present a plan to the commission. 

“He’s been jerking the city around for years,” said Mark Rhoades, the city’s planning manager.  

Valiyee, however, says he has been a decent landlord and has accommodated his tenants’ needs. He said that when he bought the building in 1970, he reduced occupancy from 78 to 50 and seismically retrofitted it. 

The number of illegal bedrooms in the house is still unclear, with the resident manager and Valiyee providing conflicting numbers on how many total bedrooms are there. Valiyee said there are 50, but his property manager said there are 45. 

The illegal bedrooms, which provided additional rental income during the recent housing shortage, may not even work to Valiyee’s advantage this year. Boarding houses such Valiyee’s tend to fill up when there are few available rentals, but in the current market, students opt for apartments over boarding houses. The resident manager said that the basement rooms are currently vacant and that only18 rooms had been rented. 

This is not the first time Valiyee has been in trouble with the city. 

Last week the Rent Stabilization Board upheld a decision requiring Valiyee to pay 13 former tenants at his 2412 Piedmont Ave. boarding house between $894 and $3,284 in rent reductions. The tenants filed a grievance charging that toilets and sinks were left clogged, showers were not cleaned, the refrigerator did not work, and rodents ran throughout the house.  

“I have seen residential hotels in the Tenderloin better than that building,” said Rent Board Commissioner, Paul Hogarth, who helped the residents file their grievances.