Sup. David Campos introduced legislation that to would require landlords to notify tenants of their rights 45 days prior to initiating buyout negotiations and notify the San Francisco Rent Board that a buyout occurred. This would bring minimal regulations to the practice of tenant buyouts, which are currently the wild west of San Francisco landlord-tenant disputes.
Buyouts are essentially extra-legal negotiated evictions in which a landlord pays a tenant to move out “voluntarily” (though usually under threat of OMI or Ellis Act eviction). A buyout allows a landlord to clear out a property without ever having to file a formal eviction notice, without ever having to notify the Rent Board or the Planning Department that tenants have been evicted, and without incurring any obligation to not rent out the unit for three (OMI) or five (Ellis) years. And if the tenant was senior or disabled, the landlord is able to avoid having a permanent bar to condo conversion placed on the property, which has immense value.
Landlords are currently wiling to pay significant sums of money to avoid having an eviction record on the property. We will be closely monitoring this legislation and the impact it has on buyouts if it passes.