San Francisco Election Update (Archives): Proposition M (2008) – Adding Section 37.10B “Tenant Harassment” to the Rent Ordinance

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In 2008, San Francisco voters passed Proposition M – amending the San Francisco Rent Ordinance to include “tenant harassment” regulations (implemented as Section 37.10B). A group of petitioners (including landlords, landlord attorneys, the San Francisco Apartment Association and the SF Association of Realtors) filed a facial challenge against its provisions.

That case, Larson v. CCSF, overturned several of its provisions. The court found that the prohibition on continued buyout offers (after a tenant notified the landlord that they weren’t interested) violated free speech rights. Another provision allowing the Rent Board to award damages violated the judicial powers doctrine (by vesting judicial authority in an agency). Other provisions survived: San Francisco could prohibit offers to vacate accompanied by threats or intimidation (as a reasonable time, place and manner restriction on speech). And the Rent Board was permitted to award a reduction of rent based on a quantifiable reduction in housing services.

The full text of Proposition M is available here

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California Legislative Update (2018) – Cities with Rent Control No Longer Exempt from State Mandate on Authorizing EV Charging Stations for Existing Tenancies

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Effective January 1, 2019, AB 1796 amends California’s existing law on mandating electrical vehicle charging stations for existing tenancies, upon tenant request.

The revised Civil Code §1947.6 will require a landlord’s consent, but with some helpful conditions: The tenant must provide a written request, along with their consent to a written amendment to the lease. This amendment must include your requirements for the “installation, use, maintenance, and removal” of the charging station, as well as their obligation “to pay as part of rent for the costs associated with the electrical usage of the charging station”. The tenant must also maintain general liability insurance with the landlord as an additional insured.

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Ballinger v. City of Oakland: Pacific Legal Foundation Sues City of “Relocation Assistance Payments”

The Ballingers, a military couple, leased their single family home in Oakland when they were reassigned to Washington D.C. for service. Anticipating they would return to the Bay Area within a few years, they negotiated a term lease that would become a month-to-month tenancy around that time. However, after they leased their home (but before they had planned to move back in), the City of Oakland instituted a “relocation assistance payment” regulation, requiring them to pay their tenants in order to terminate the tenancy and move back in.

The Pacific Legal Foundation represents the Ballingers in their lawsuit against Oakland, alleging that the ordinance constitutes a taking/exaction of private property and that it violates their rights under the Ellis Act.

However, relocation assistance payments that are reasonable have been upheld as consistent with the Ellis Act (cities are actually allowed to mitigate the adverse impacts of Ellis Act displacement, provided the payments do not impose a “prohibitive price“).

That said, the case law interpreting the mitigation payments addresses the Ellis Act only, not the 5th Amendment, so there may be something to the claim that taking money from a landlord to give to a tenant in exchange for allowing the landlord to retake possession of her property is an unconstitutional “taking”. And PLF may have to focus on the constitutional claims, rather than violations of state law, as their clients actually performed an “owner move-in” eviction rather than an Ellis Act eviction.

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Zacks, Freedman & Patterson, PC To Join MCLE Panel on the Ellis Act in San Francisco

Justin A. Goodman of Zacks, Freedman & Patterson, PC will join a panel of attorneys (who represent both tenants and landlords), as well as the Senior Advisor at the Office of the Mayor, to teach a continuing legal education course on the Ellis Act. The course will include preparing for withdrawal of residential property from the housing market, the transactional process leading to termination of tenancy, common defenses, and the lasting effect on the property after ‘going out of business’.

The MCLE course is presented by the Bar Association of San Francisco, and will take place on December 10, 2018 at 12:00pm in the BASF Conference Center, located at 301 Battery Street, 3rd Floor, San Francisco, California.

Moderator
Tiffany R. Norman, trn Law Associates

Speakers
Andrew Wiegel, Wiegel Law Group, PLC
Thomas E. Drohan, Staff Attorney Legal Assistance to the Elderly
Justin A. Goodman, Zacks, Freedman & Patterson, PC
Jeff Buckley, Senior Advisor for the Office of the Mayor

The Bar Association of San Francisco has been providing San Francisco legal professionals with networking and pro bono opportunities in order to better serve the community since 1872.

Its mission is to champion equal access to justice and to promote humanity, excellence, and diversity in the legal profession. It provides legal services to disadvantaged and underserved individuals in San Francisco and creates opportunities for legal service in the community, encouraging participation by its members.

It advances professional growth and education, and elevates the standards of integrity, honor, and respect in the practice of law. It also cultivates diversity and equality in the legal profession, provides a collective voice for public advocacy, and pioneers constructive change in society.

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Daily Journal Features Zacks, Freedman & Patterson Takings Case

The Daily Journal featured a Zacks, Freedman & Patterson, PC case – San Francisco SRO Hotel Coalition v. City and County of San Francisco (2018) – making an argument for publication of the Court of Appeal case about the application of an injunction against a change-in-use regulation that appeared likely to effect a taking without just compensation.
Continue reading “Daily Journal Features Zacks, Freedman & Patterson Takings Case”

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Justin Goodman Featured in SF Apartment Magazine Legal Q&A for November 2018

Justin Goodman was featured in the Legal Q&A for the November 2018 issue of SF Apartment Magazine – the official publication of the San Francisco Apartment Association.

Justin discussed potential liability for a landlord “waiting too long” to rent an available apartment when he is only receiving applicants enrolled in the Section 8 program, as well as how the recent opinion CCSF v. Post (2018) changed the rules on “source of income discrimination” in San Francisco.


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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San Francisco Legislative Update (2018): New “Fire Life Safety Notice and Order” Enhances City’s Tools for Fire Safety Violations and Mandated Upgrades

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Ordinance 267-18 amends the Building Code to create a new “Fire Life Safety Notice and Order” that Department of Building Inspection officials can issue in response to repeated violations of DBI-enforced fire safety requirements.

The new rules apply to buildings of three or more units (i.e., anything larger than a duplex) and after two or more unabated Fire Life Safety Notice and Orders, they will require the building owner to do one or more of the following:

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DLI Properties, LLC v. Hill (2018): Post-Foreclosure Tenant Protection Statute Inapplicable To Successor Owners Who Create New Leases with Existing Tenants

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In DLI Properties, LLC v. Hill, the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of Los Angeles parsed a state statute requiring certain notifications by new landlords to their tenants, affirming an unlawful detainer judgment for the landlord.

DLI Properties, LLC acquired a property in foreclosure that was tenant occupied. Generally, foreclosing on an earlier interest (like a deed of trust) will eliminate interests that are later in time (like a lease). But California has specific statutory protections for tenants facing foreclosures. California also requires successor owners to notify existing tenants of information how they can pay rent and how they may serve notices relating to the tenancy and civil process. These requirements (found in Civil Code §1961, et seq.) are somewhat self-policing for successor owners, who cannot serve a rent demand notice to initiate an unlawful detainer, based on rent owed during any period of non-compliance.

DLI Properties, LLC purchased the subject property in foreclosure. It hired Strategic Property Management, Inc. to manage the property, and Strategic entered into a new lease agreement with the tenant (Hill) on the date of sale. Hill had become delinquent in the payment of rent, and DLI served a three-day notice to pay rent or quit, and then filed an unlawful detainer action. Before the jury returned a verdict in favor of DLI (finding that it complied with the unlawful detainer procedures and that Hill was not entitled to offsets for habitability issues), Hill moved for nonsuit, then directed verdict, then JNOV on a single issue: failure to comply with Section 1962, et seq.

Section 1962(c) provides: “The information required by this section shall be kept current and this section shall extend to and be enforceable against any successor owner or manager, who shall comply with this section within 15 days of succeeding the previous owner or manager. A successor owner or manager shall not serve a notice pursuant to paragraph (2) of Section 1161 of the Code of Civil Procedure or otherwise evict a tenant for nonpayment of rent that accrued during the period of noncompliance by a successor owner or manager with this subdivision. Nothing in this subdivision shall relieve the tenant of any liability for unpaid rent.”

The Appellate Division upheld the trial court ruling, noting the distinction between “owners” and “successor owners” under the statute. The California Legislature was understandably concerned about the treatment of existing tenants who do not necessarily know who succeeds to their lease contracts following foreclosure. (In fact, this concern guided the California Supreme Court’s recent analysis of post-foreclosure eviction notices in Dr. Leevil, LLC v. Westlake Health Care Center.)

While DLI purchased at foreclosure, its property manager executed a new lease, and this rendered them “owner” under the statute: “This disparate treatment of owner and successor owner/manager for the same dereliction of their statutory duty indicates the prohibition is meant to specifically target successor owners and their managers to address a danger posed by the change in ownership. There is a greater likelihood a tenant would not be aware of relevant information concerning a successor owner/manager rather than an owner with which he enters into a lease agreement. Therefore, the prohibition against evictions encourages and incentivizes a successor owner/manager to disclose such information.”

Ultimately, where the owner (via its property manager) entered a new lease with an existing tenant, it created a direct relationship with the tenant, which did not resemble any of the Legislature’s concerns in enacting the statute.

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California Proposition 10 (2018): Voters Reject Repeal of Costa-Hawkins

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SF Gate reports on the defeat of Prop. 10 at the ballot. The measure to repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act “fell behind early and continued to trail by a margin of about 65 percent to 35 percent throughout the night”.

Proposition 10 followed AB 1506 (2017), a legislative attempt at repeal, which failed to get out of committee.

For now, cities remain capable of implementing new rent control ordinances. However, Costa-Hawkins will continue to limit the extent of local price controls (as cities cannot impose price ceilings on “new construction”, apply “strict” vacancy control to empty units, or extend rent control to new tenancies in single family homes and condominiums).

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Justin Goodman Featured in SF Apartment Magazine Legal Q&A for October 2018

Justin Goodman was featured in the Legal Q&A for the October 2018 issue of SF Apartment Magazine – the official publication of the San Francisco Apartment Association.

Justin discussed “what happens next in San Francisco” in the event Prop 10 passes (although as of recently, it is not polling well). (Prop 10 (“the Affordable Housing Act“) is the ballot initiative seeking to repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act.)

The October 2018 issue also featured Justin’s recommendation to landlords dealing with fires, in terms of tenants, regulations and restoration work, in an article by editor Emily Landes, titled “Master of Disaster“.


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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