19Jun
In August of last year the San Francisco Rent Ordinance was amended to further restrict the laws regulating a landlord's right to owner move-in evictions. Some of these changes came into effect in August 2017, while others did not take effect until January. Below is a brief rundown of the changes to owner move-in laws that you need to know about.
Until the new law tenants who were evicted for an owner move-in eviction had one year to bring a lawsuit against a landlord that failed to move in. The new change gives displaced tenants five years to bring a lawsuit. This reduces the amount of pressure on tenants to keep a close watch on their former homes and take immediate action, while also discouraging landlords from filing bogus owner move-in notices and then never moving in.
This is designed to discourage landlords from using an owner move-in eviction as a pretext to evict a tenant in order to charge higher rent to a subsequent occupant.
This one is pretty self explanatory. The new version of the ordinance ups the ante on landlords to honor their word.
Landlords now have an obligation to submit information to the Rent Board after the initial filing of an owner move-in eviction notice. Landlords are required to submit an updated statement of occupancy every 90 days after the date of service of an OMI notice until they move in, and then file one once a year for five years after recovering possession.
Landlords are only required to reside in a unit pursuant to an owner move-in eviction notice for 36 consecutive months. However, where before, they could then rent the unit out to a new tenant, owners now have an obligation to offer their displaced tenant/s the ability to move back in if the owner doesn't stay for five years after issuance of the owner move-in eviction notice.
For the full text of the changes check out the SF Rent Board: https://sfrb.org/sites/default/files/OMI%20Amendments%208.27.17.pdf
As always, this information is not to be construed as legal advice and is general in nature only. For an evaluation of how these laws affect your situation contact our office or another tenant's rights organization.
Recovered on behalf of a group of 30 tenants living in an SRO in San Francisco who were living with horrendous conditions in their rent controlled apartments, including rodents, bedbugs, mold, water leaks and harassment.Read More
Recovered on behalf of three families living in a building in San Francisco’s SOMA neighborhood who were forced to live with substandard conditions for years as a result of their landlord’s negligence, including issues with lack of heat, lack of hot water and cockroach/rat infestations.Read More
Recovered on behalf of a couple living in a rent-controlled home in the outer Sunset neighborhood. Our clients were forced to vacate after the landlord served them with an Owner Move-In Eviction Notice. After the landlords failed to move into the property, our clients filed suit for wrongful eviction.Read More
Recovered on behalf of a San Francisco tenant in Russian Hill. Tenant was forced to vacate her illegal apartment in retaliation for reporting unlawful rent increases to the San Francisco Rent Board.Read More
Recovered for a single long-term tenant in San Francisco. Our client was forced to move out of his apartment as a result of extreme landlord harassment.Read More
Recovered on behalf of three long-term tenants in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood who were constructively evicted due to noise and nuisance conditions created by their downstairs neighbors, which the owner refused to address.Read More
Recovered on behalf of elderly, disabled tenant who was forced to move out of her rent-controlled San Francisco apartment of 50 years after landlord/owner failed to resolve numerous building code violations that remained outstanding for over a decade.Read More
Recovered on behalf of seven tenants living in a makeshift boarding house in East Palo Alto.Read More
Recovered on behalf of two former San Francisco tenants who were evicted via an Owner Move-In Eviction and owner failed to occupy the unit as her primary place of residence.Read More
Recovered on behalf of an elderly long-term tenant who was forced to vacate her long San Francisco apartment as a result of her landlord’s refusal to address longstanding defective conditions, including lack of heat, mold, rodent infestations, and defective plumbing. Read More
Recovered on behalf of a San Francisco tenant who was forced to vacate his home as a result of ongoing, disruptive construction and the owners’ refusal to provide him with alternative housing. Read More
Recovered on behalf of a San Francisco family that was constructively evicted from their home in the Richmond District as a result of unlawful rent increases, defective conditions and tenant harassment.Read More
Recovered on behalf of a tenant living in an illegal “in-law” unit. In this case, a new owner purchased the building and then demolished our client’s unit without permits while she was displaced for seismic retrofitting.Read More
Recovered on behalf of two long term San Francisco tenants who were fraudulently evicted from their home of over twenty years under the pretext of an owner move-in eviction.Read More
Recovered for tenant who was injured when their stairway railing collapsed at the tenant’s Mission District apartment building.Read More
Recovered in action for a group of tenants forced to vacate their San Francisco apartment house due to severe habitability defects including mold and water leaks.Read More
For more information or to discuss your legal situation, call us today at (415) 649-6203 for a phone consultation or submit an inquiry below. Please note our firm can only assist tenants residing in San Francisco, Oakland & Berkeley.