Bullard v. San Francisco Residential Rent Stabilization Board

Opinion

PARRILLI, J.

The Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act (Costa-Hawkins Act) (Civ. Code, § 1954.50 et seq.) preempts local rent control by permitting landlords to set the initial rent for vacant units, but expressly preserves local authority to “regulate or monitor the grounds for eviction.” (Civ. Code, § 1954.53, subd. (e);

DeZerega v. Meggs

(2000) 83 Cal.App.4th 28, 40-41 [99 Cal.Rptr.2d 366].) Under San Francisco’s rent control ordinance, a landlord who evicts a tenant in order to move into the tenant’s unit must offer the tenant another unit, if one is vacant. The ordinance also regulates the rent a landlord may charge for the replacement unit. Is this rent restriction permissible under the Costa-Hawkins Act’s provision for local eviction control? We conclude it is not. The “grounds for eviction” contemplated by

[490]

Civil Code section 1954.53, subdivision (e) are distinct from such subsequent rent regulation.

James Bullard and Emily Wilson (Landlords) appeal from an order denying their petition for a writ of administrative mandamus. Landlords challenged a ruling by the San Francisco Residential Rent Stabilization Board (the Rent Board) denying their appeal from a hearing officer’s determination of their tenant’s rent. The tenant successfully sought a downward adjustment in rent for a unit he occupied after Landlords, who had recently purchased the building, evicted him so they could move into his former apartment. The trial court rejected Landlords’ contentions that (1) the Costa-Hawkins Act preempted the provisions of San Francisco’s rent control ordinance permitting the Rent Board to set rents for units offered to tenants who were displaced by owner move-in evictions, and (2) the Rent Board lacked jurisdiction to issue its decision.

We reverse. Because this appeal raises only legal issues, we need not elaborate the factual background.

Discussion

Section 37.9 of the San Francisco Administrative Code provides, in relevant part:

“(a) A landlord shall not endeavor to recover possession of a rental unit unless: