28Dec
It can make you nervous when you hear the news that your landlord is selling the building or house where you live. Read on to learn what to expect when your landlord puts their rental property up for sale.
The first thing to realize is that when a building gets sold, the new owner steps into the shoes of the old owner. This means that any oral or written agreements that you had with your landlord will also apply to your agreement with the new owner. You aren't obligated to sign a new lease. If the new owner does request this, then the new lease must be significantly similar to the old one.
If you are covered by the SF Rent Ordinance, the new landlord can't raise your rent any higher than the allowable annual increases. But if your former landlord hadn't increased your rent for a long time, the new landlord may be able to impose a "banked" rent increase, an increase where they can add up all of the increases that the former landlord never applied.
You might be asked to fill out an Estoppel Certificate, which is a document that lays out the existing rights of current tenants. If your lease doesn't have specific language that requires it, you don't have to complete one. However, there are advantages to doing it because you want to be able to establish and maintain certain rights and privileges, such as if you have an agreement with the landlord to have a pet, despite the "no pets policy" or you had permission to sublet. Another way this could be important is if you're a protected tenant; you will want to the owners to be aware of this sooner rather than later.
A normal concern is about whether the new owners can evict you. In San Francisco, there must be "just cause" to evict; mere new ownership doesn't qualify under this. However, the new owners may try to use other means to evict you:
Adjusting to a new situation can be unpredictable. If you're experiencing problems that come with new ownership, act in your best interest, and contact an experienced attorney. Our Wolford Wayne attorneys are ready to protect your rights and try to get you to a positive outcome. Contact us today to get started.
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.