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Justin Goodman Featured in SF Apartment Magazine Legal Q&A for November 2019

Justin Goodman was featured in the Legal Q&A for the November 2019 issue of SF Apartment Magazine – the official publication of the San Francisco Apartment Association.

Justin explored how to navigate a Costa-Hawkins increase against subsequent occupants, when the landlord suspects that the last original occupant has passed away, but the subsequent occupants continue to tender rent on their behalf.


SFAA is dedicated to educating, advocating for, and supporting the rental housing community so that its members operate ethically, fairly, and profitably. SFAA’s is a trade association whose main focus is to support rental owners by offering a wide variety of benefits that address all aspects of rental housing industry.

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Olivares v. Pineda – Litigation Privilege Only Counts If Your Math Checks Out, and Rent Demand Without Eviction May Be Actionable

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In Olivares v. Pineda, attorneys for a landlord appealed from the denial of their anti-SLAPP motion. The attorneys moved to strike a tenant’s lawsuit for wrongful eviction and misuse of a security deposit, directed at a failed first eviction lawsuit followed by a corrected three-day notice that never resulted in a second.
Continue reading “Olivares v. Pineda – Litigation Privilege Only Counts If Your Math Checks Out, and Rent Demand Without Eviction May Be Actionable”

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AB 1482: Statewide Eviction and Rent Increase Regulations Signed Into Law

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AB 1482 is California’s statewide eviction and rental price cap law, introduced by Assemblymember Chiu and signed into law by Governor Newsom. It is estimated to “extend tenant protections to roughly 4.9 million households that are not currently covered by local rent control policies”. It takes effect January 1, 2020 (although some of its provisions grandfather rental rates from 2019).

Read a detailed analysis here.

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What’s a “Good Faith” Owner or Relative Move-In Eviction? Recent Court Rulings Explore OMI/RMI’s, But Following The Letter Of The Law Might Not Be Enough To Avoid A Lawsuit

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Two recent opinions on owner and relative move-in evictions analyze the murky area of “good faith”.
Continue reading “What’s a “Good Faith” Owner or Relative Move-In Eviction? Recent Court Rulings Explore OMI/RMI’s, But Following The Letter Of The Law Might Not Be Enough To Avoid A Lawsuit”

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AB 1399 (2019): Heightened Regulations for Returning to the Rental Market Following Ellis Act Withdrawal

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AB 1399 is the product of Assemblymember Bloom’s efforts to prevent the perceived exploitation of the Ellis Act’s re-rental provisions by infamous landlord Anne Kihagi. (A 2017 Appellate decision found that she was not prohibited from re-renting in compliance with the Ellis Act by a stipulated settlement with the City of West Hollywood, and it condoned her re-rentals, to the extent they conformed to the law.)

AB 1399 amends the Ellis Act in three ways. First, a landlord was previously required to give a displaced-tenant the first right of refusal on re-renting a unit returned to the market within ten years of withdrawal. The existing penalty was punitive damages equal to six months of the contract rent. AB 1399 amends this to say that paying the penalty does not extinguish the owner’s obligation to honor the tenant’s rights.

Second, it aligns the dates of withdrawal for all units. The Ellis Act requires a 120-day notice period before the units are withdrawn. Qualified tenants are entitled to an extension. For other tenants, the landlord was permitted to grant an extension (to maintain rental income for each unit until all were withdrawn). This could result in two different categories of withdrawal dates, if the owner did not elect to extend non-qualified tenancies. Under AB 1399, the “date of withdrawal” (for purposes of tracking the post-withdrawal constraints) is the latest date of withdrawal of any unit.

Finally, it allows cities to require that a landlord returning any unit to the rental market during the period of constraints to return each unit, unless it was the principal place of residence to an owner or family member before withdrawal or it is the principal place of residence of an owner when the accommodations are returned to the market.

Even when these changes become effective on January 1, 2020, they will not immediately affect owners who have withdrawn from the residential rental market. Authorized provisions of the Ellis Act may be implemented by local governments but are not required. It is also currently unclear whether this will apply to re-rentals for properties withdrawn prior to AB 1399.

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Justin Goodman Featured in SF Apartment Magazine Legal Q&A for October 2019

Justin Goodman was featured in the Legal Q&A for the October 2019 issue of SF Apartment Magazine – the official publication of the San Francisco Apartment Association.

Justin explained tenants’ rights with respect to their “housing services”, and some of the common reasons landlords are interested in recovering rights to things like parking spaces.


SFAA is dedicated to educating, advocating for, and supporting the rental housing community so that its members operate ethically, fairly, and profitably. SFAA’s is a trade association whose main focus is to support rental owners by offering a wide variety of benefits that address all aspects of rental housing industry.

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Justin Goodman Featured in SF Apartment Magazine Legal Q&A for September 2019

Justin Goodman was featured in the Legal Q&A for the September 2019 issue of SF Apartment Magazine – the official publication of the San Francisco Apartment Association.

Justin explored the difference between “late fees” and rent in explaining what kinds of late fees are actually enforceable and how a landlord would be wise to demand the rent portion only, when serving a three-day notice to pay rent or quit. He further explained how certain fees may represent “liquidated damages”, which are not always enforceable.


SFAA is dedicated to educating, advocating for, and supporting the rental housing community so that its members operate ethically, fairly, and profitably. SFAA’s is a trade association whose main focus is to support rental owners by offering a wide variety of benefits that address all aspects of rental housing industry.

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Justin Goodman Featured in SF Apartment Magazine Legal Q&A for August 2019

Justin Goodman was featured in the Legal Q&A for the August 2019 issue of SF Apartment Magazine – the official publication of the San Francisco Apartment Association.

Justin discussed whether a rent increase of 15% on a single family home would constitute “rent gouging”.


SFAA is dedicated to educating, advocating for, and supporting the rental housing community so that its members operate ethically, fairly, and profitably. SFAA’s is a trade association whose main focus is to support rental owners by offering a wide variety of benefits that address all aspects of rental housing industry.

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Justin Goodman Featured in SF Apartment Magazine Legal Q&A for July 2019

Justin Goodman was featured in the Legal Q&A for the July 2019 issue of SF Apartment Magazine – the official publication of the San Francisco Apartment Association.

Justin explored some of the problems landlords face in the gray area between “housing services” and “nuisance eviction” when a tenant insists upon a particular use of the property that is incompatible with health and safety law (in this case, blocking fire egress with off-street moped parking).


SFAA is dedicated to educating, advocating for, and supporting the rental housing community so that its members operate ethically, fairly, and profitably. SFAA’s is a trade association whose main focus is to support rental owners by offering a wide variety of benefits that address all aspects of rental housing industry.

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HERO v. City of Los Angeles (2019): Relevant Baseline for CEQA Analysis Properly Evaluated a Property Already Withdrawn under the Ellis Act and Therefore Properly Excluded Evidence of Impact on Housing and Population

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The City was not required to prepare an EIR to address the Project’s alleged impact on the loss of rent-stabilized housing units or the displacement of tenants because the property previously had been withdrawn from the rental market pursuant to the Ellis Act; under CEQA the assessment of impacts of a proposed project ordinarily is based on conditions as they exist at the time the environmental analysis is commenced.

Hollywoodians Encouraging Rental Opportunities v. City of Los Angeles affirmed a trial court’s determination that an EIR was not required under CEQA to evaluate impacts of tenant displacement for a property withdrawn from the rental market under the Ellis Act.

When a developer sought to convert an 18 unit apartment building into a 24 guestroom boutique hotel, a neighborhood association (Hollywoodians Encouraging Rental Opportunities (“HERO”)) appealed approval of the permit. The City Council denied the appeal, so the association petitioned the superior court for writ of mandate to reverse the City Council’s decision.
Continue reading “HERO v. City of Los Angeles (2019): Relevant Baseline for CEQA Analysis Properly Evaluated a Property Already Withdrawn under the Ellis Act and Therefore Properly Excluded Evidence of Impact on Housing and Population”

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