Month: May 2017

The San Francisco Rent Ordinance permits an owner to evict an otherwise eviction-controlled tenant as long as the owner possesses the good faith and honest intent to use the property as his or her principal residence for at least thirty-six continuous months. This would enable an owner to move in with whomever they wished to share their new home, such as a husband, wife, partner, friend or anyone else. But what if the building contains multiple tenant-occupied units and an owner wants to have family live in one of those other units? Enter the San Francisco relative move-in eviction.

Under the San Francisco Rent Ordinance, not only may an owner evict tenants so the owner can move into that specific unit, but an owner may also evict tenants in a different unit in the same building where an owner lives for use of the owner’s grandparents, grandchildren, parents, children, sibling, or spouse. In fact, an owner need not even be living in the building at the time a relative move-in eviction notice is served, as long as the landlord is simultaneously seeking possession pursuant to an owner move-in notice himself or herself. For example, a new owner could have purchased a tenant occupied two-unit building, serve one unit with an owner move-in termination notice, and serve the other unit with a relative move-in termination notice. The only restriction is the relative moving in must have the same good faith and honest intent to occupy the unit for at least thirty-six continuous months at the time the notice is served, just like an owner.
Continue reading “The San Francisco Relative Move-In Eviction: Keeping Your Family Close”

Probably a bit longer than you want, but not nearly as long as you may think. In general, San Francisco residential tenants who live in rental units that were constructed prior to June of 1979 enjoy eviction controls. This means that even though a tenant’s lease has expired, a landlord still may only evict a tenant for one of the sixteen reasons provided for in the San Francisco Rent Ordinance. New property owners in San Francisco, especially from outside the City and State, are often surprised to learn that they simply cannot have a tenant leave simply because the lease has expired. Unless the landlord has one (or more) of the sixteen “fault” or “no fault” grounds for eviction, the tenant cannot be forced to leave against their wishes.

The San Francisco Rent Ordinance permits an owner to recover possession of a rental unit from a tenant for the owner’s own residential use, as long as the owner complies with the procedural and factual requirements that are regulated by the Rent Ordinance itself. If so, an owner serves all occupants of the rental unit with a sixty-day notice of termination of tenancy. This notice of termination of tenancy requires all occupants to vacate the property by the end of the sixtieth day after the notice is served. If the tenants remain in possession after the sixty days, and the notice has expired, they are no longer legal occupants. They are considered holdover tenants who are unlawfully in possession.
Continue reading “How Long Is My San Francisco Owner Move-In Eviction Going To Take?”

Tenants in San Francisco who enjoy eviction protections can only be evicted for just cause as set forth in the San Francisco Rent Ordinance. Those causes are categorized as either “fault” or “no fault” grounds for eviction. A San Francisco owner move-in eviction is a “no fault” eviction because the tenants are not being evicted for doing anything wrong; they are not at “fault”. The Rent Ordinance requires landlords performing a no fault eviction to pay tenants a certain sum for relocation expenses in an amount set by law.

In San Francisco, no fault eviction relocation payments are regulated by the Rent Ordinance, which sets forth who and how much must be paid. First, only eligible tenants need be paid relocation money. An eligible tenant is defined as any authorized occupant of a rental unit, regardless of age, who has resided in the unit for twelve or more months. This means that an eligible tenant need not be an original tenant, nor must the eligible tenant even be on the lease. All which is required to establish eligibility for relocation purposes is that the occupant is authorized to be in possession and they have been there for at least twelve months.
Continue reading “How Much Does A San Francisco Owner Move-In Eviction Cost?”