17Oct
Rent control laws limit how much landlords can increase rent from year to year. California recently enacted a law limiting the percentage increase, but this did not apply to certain residential rentals.
In less than three weeks, California voters are set to decide on Proposition 21. The proposition changes statewide rent control policy to the advantage of residential renters. Currently, the 1995 Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act prohibits cities and counties from making rent control laws for condominiums and single-family homes built whenever, and residential units built after February 1, 1995.
In addition to the bar on rent control laws for condos, single-family homes, and “new” units, Costa-Hawkins also blocked so-called “vacancy control” laws. Before Costa-Hawkins, cities and counties enacted vacancy control to limit rent increases on a new tenant as another form of rent control.
Costa-Hawkins’ block on vacancy control also encouraged landlords to consider a new roommate an unauthorized sub-tenant if the landlord refused to accept rent from the new roommate. In this situation, if the lord accepts rent from this new roommate, that person gets the protections of rent control as a co-tenant.
Where a new roommate is considered an unauthorized subtenant, the landlord can raise the rent on roommate once the tenant on the lease (the master tenant) moves out or dies. This creates an incentive for landlords to cycle new tenants by making living conditions poor in the hope that the master tenant moves.
Moreover, Costa-Hawkins substitutes the 1995 “new” unit cut-off date for certain cities that had existing rent control cut-off dates. Rent control in those cities can only apply to units built before those dates. In San Francisco, for example, the date set was 1979, thus rent control could only apply if the dwelling was built before 1979.
These issues have lead to increased rents across California. This is especially the case in the San Francisco Bay and Silicon Valley with the technology boom raising wages of would be renters.
Since 1995, Costa-Hawkins has let landlords use this sharp rise in wages against the renter as landlords know that these new high earners can pay rent increases that vacancy control laws would have limited. Current renters, other prospective renters, and roommates who want to stay are then easily out-priced.
Proposition 21 curbs Costa-Hawkins rent and vacancy control limitations with two fundamental changes to California law:
Proposition 21 presents a way for renters to have a direct impact on rent control laws in California. The ballot system allows voters to bypass the California legislature and take it upon themselves to enact the state’s laws. The system gives renters the opportunity to ensure that rent control laws cannot be used to a renter’s disadvantage.
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.