A set of stairs is ripped from an apartment building with no notice or permits, leaving tenants in a lurch.

The tenants living in a small apartment building on Sunset Drive in Pacific Grove got a big surprise on Monday, Nov. 9, when a construction crew demolished stairs leading to the second floor. They received no notice ahead of time from management company C&C, a tenant says.

The city also received no notice—a building inspector showed the same day up after the stairs and some balconies had been removed and slapped a bright red "stop work" violation order. A second notice read "UNSAFE" and stated no one was to enter or occupy the second floor. "Stairs removed without permits," was the reason given. 

Nevertheless, sympathetic construction workers left a ladder behind and some tenants accessed their apartments anyway. Four occupied units are impacted by the loss of stairs. Two other upstairs units in the building have their own staircases.

Tenants heard nothing from management for the first three days after the stairs were removed. Eventually there was some communication, with management offering to compensate for the cost of hotel rooms.

The problem is that tenants don't necessarily have the upfront funds to pay for hotels, says Dan Terndrup, a first-floor tenant.

"This makes the 'solution' impossible for tenants who are already struggling to make ends meet due to raised rents," he says. 

Tenants were told it could be a week before they could gain access. One family living upstairs has two young children.

A property manager and a C&C regional manager did not immediately respond to a text and a phone message from the Weekly.

The 11-unit building constructed in 1964 was recently sold on Oct. 7 for $3.3 million to a limited liability corporation named 818 Sunset Drive, the property's address, according to County of Monterey property records. The mailing address for the owner is a mailbox center in Santa Monica.

Finally, on Nov. 13, a notice from C&C went out to tenants that construction was scheduled to begin that day.

"Construction will continue until all work has been completed. During this time, you may experience some noise and temporary inconveniences related to ongoing work," it said.

Terndrup wonders why there was no notice of construction in the first place.

"I’m affected in that I work from home. It's no secret that people work from home now—it would be a nice courtesy that there’s going to be loud work done," he says.

"On top of that, there’s a lack of courtesy to get the proper permits from the city," he says. "It's stunning to come home to see signs saying unpermitted work happening on your property." 

One positive outcome has been that tenants have gotten to know each other better.

"We've really bonded with the other tenants over this and have been meeting in the courtyard nightly to strategize what to do," Terndrup says.