The Mosser Companies was founded over 70 years ago by Charles William Mosser, a World War II veteran who built a portfolio of over 35 apartment buildings and 4 hotels in San Francisco. Upon his death in 2007, Charles left the business to his adopted son Neveo to manage, with his daughters Deborah and Kathleen also receiving stakes. For years, the arrangement seemed to work, with the siblings reportedly enjoying a close relationship as the business thrived.
Under Neveo's leadership, the Mosser Companies expanded aggressively in the 2010s, riding the wave of San Francisco's tech-fueled real estate boom. The firm acquired numerous apartment buildings across San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles, growing its portfolio to around 3,000 units housing 5,000 tenants. To fuel this expansion, the company took on significant short-term debt at variable interest rates.
However, the Covid-19 pandemic dealt a severe blow to the Mosser Companies' business model. Occupancy rates plummeted as residents fled the city, while those who remained often struggled to pay rent amid job losses. The Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes in 2022 then caused the company's variable rate loans to skyrocket in cost. By late 2022, the Mosser Companies had defaulted on over $1 billion in mortgages.
As the company's financial troubles became public, the long-simmering tensions within the Mosser family boiled over. In March 2023, Deborah Mosser filed a lawsuit seeking to remove her brother Neveo from control of the family trust. She accused him of mismanagement, commingling assets, and over-leveraging trust properties for his own benefit. Deborah claimed she only learned of the company's distress through news reports rather than from Neveo directly.
Neveo has vigorously contested these allegations, arguing that he kept his sisters informed of key decisions and continued paying them allowances even when income was insufficient. He warns that removing him from leadership would throw the $1 billion portfolio into chaos, as he is the personal guarantor on many loans. Neveo maintains that the company's troubles stem from pandemic-related market forces beyond his control, not mismanagement.
The lawsuit has created awkward dynamics within the company. Deborah's sons Bryce and Jared Vree continue to work at Mosser Companies even as they support the legal action against their uncle. Meanwhile, the relationship between Neveo and Jim Farris, CEO of affiliated company Mosser Capital, has reportedly become strained. Both Mosser Companies and Mosser Capital recently vacated their shared office space amid the turmoil.
As the legal battle plays out in San Francisco Superior Court, the fate of the Mosser family's real estate empire hangs in the balance. Judge Ross Moody denied Deborah's initial request to suspend Neveo from the trust in May, but the power struggle is far from over. The case highlights how quickly family fortunes can unravel, even after decades of success. Charles Mosser's careful estate planning sought to avoid the "shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves" phenomenon of squandered family wealth. But he likely never imagined his children would end up fighting so bitterly over control of his legacy.
