When it comes to being a landlord in San Francisco, many resources are available to help you get started.
From the San Francisco Rent Control Board to the Department of Building Inspection and San Francisco Apartment Association, you can learn much about rent control and laws specific to landlords renting out their properties in the City. One of the best places to begin your search for information is the San Francisco Rent Board. Among other important information, the annual allowable rent increase effective March 1, 2022, through February 28, 2023, is 2.3% percent and 0.7% percent in the previous 12 months.
The rate of interest owed on security deposits for March 1, 2022, through February 28, 2023, is 0.1% percent.
The Rent Board publishes the new rate annually in early January for the one year beginning March 1. of each year.
The 16 Just Cause reasons for the Termination of a Lease Agreement are as follows
- Nonpayment of rent, habitual late payment, or frequent bounced checks.
- Breach (violation) of a rental agreement term that has not been corrected after written notice from the landlord.
- Nuisance or substantial damage to the unit, or “creating a considerable interference with the comfort, safety, or enjoyment of the landlord or other tenants in the building. “
- Illegal use of the unit. This just cause may not be used to evict a tenant from an illegal residential unit.
- Termination of the rental agreement and the tenant refuses to execute a written extension for materially the same terms.
- The tenant has, after written notice to cease, refused the landlord access to the unit as required by law.
- An unapproved subtenant (approval can be either stated or implied) is the only person remaining in the unit (subtenant holding over).
- Move-in of the landlord or a close relative of the landlord (if the landlord lives in the building). The tenant has a right to relocation payments.
- Sale of a unit that has been converted to a condo. Seniors and permanently disabled tenants cannot be evicted for condo conversions. Tenants have a right to a 1-year lease or 120 days with relocation payments.
- Demolition or removal of the unit from housing use. The tenant has a right to relocation payments.
- Capital improvements or rehabilitation with all the necessary permits allow the temporary removal of the unit from housing use. The tenant has the right to re-occupy the unit once the work is completed at the prior rent, adjusted by the Rent Board’s allowable rent increases, such as the annual rent increase. The tenant has a right to relocation payments.
- “Substantial rehabilitation” of a building that is essentially uninhabitable with all the necessary permits. The tenant has a right to relocation payments.
- Ellis Act evictions that require withdrawal from rental housing use all of the units in the building or a unit detached from another structure on the same lot (e.g., a cottage). Tenants evicted for this cause have a right to a relocation payment.
- Lead abatement as required by the San Francisco Health Code with the temporary removal of the unit from housing use for less than 30 days. The tenant has a right to a relocation payment.
- Demolition or permanently remove ofthe rental unit from housing use per the City’s development agreement terms under Chapter 56 of the San Francisco Administrative Code.
- Good Samaritan Occupancy Status for the tenant expires, and the landlord serves an eviction notice within 60 days after the expiration of the status. (The Good Samaritan Occupancy Status is when a tenant loses their home due to a disaster and the landlord rents another temporary unit to the tenant for low rent.)
If you need to know whether your reason is a just cause or if you need clarification on what type of eviction notice to issue for each kind of just cause, then we recommend contacting a lawyer specializing in landlord-tenant law.
