San Francisco, California Real Estate Law: how the file usually turns local, disclosure file, and county records

Real estate law in San Francisco is dominated by the most powerful municipal tenant-protection regime in the United States: the SAN FRANCISCO RENT ORDINANCE, administered by the SAN FRANCISCO RENT BOARD. In a city with the nation's highest housing costs and a decades-long affordability crisis, tenant law here is a specialty unto itself, and a San Francisco rental problem analyzed under state law alone will get the answer badly wrong. Landlord-tenant disputes and unlawful-detainer (eviction) cases are heard in the SAN FRANCISCO SUPERIOR COURT at the Civic Center Courthouse (400 McAllister St.), but the substantive rules for most of the city's rental housing come first from the Rent Ordinance and the Rent Board's regulations. Because San Francisco is a consolidated city and county, the same government administers rent control, records deeds, assesses property, and hears these disputes — an unusual concentration that shapes practice.

California's baseline still frames ownership and foreclosure. The state uses NON-JUDICIAL FORECLOSURE through a trustee's sale — Notice of Default, then roughly 90 days, then a Notice of Sale and a sale in as little as 21 more days, with NO right of redemption after the sale — subject to the Homeowner Bill of Rights' dual-tracking ban and single-point-of-contact rules. PROPOSITION 13 caps property taxes at one percent of assessed value with two-percent annual increases and reassessment to market value on sale or transfer, with PROP 19 adjusting parent-child and senior-portability rules. Statewide, the Tenant Protection Act (AB 1482) caps annual rent increases at five percent plus CPI (maximum ten percent) and requires just cause — but for the many San Francisco units under the stricter Rent Ordinance, the local law controls. COSTA-HAWKINS limits how far local rent control can reach, exempting single-family homes, condos, and post-February-1995 construction from strict rent control and barring vacancy control — which is why a unit's construction date and type determine everything.

The San Francisco Rent Ordinance is where tenants hold real power. It applies rent control to most units in buildings built before June 13, 1979 — capping annual increases at an ANNUAL ALLOWABLE INCREASE the Rent Board sets each year (a low percentage tied to CPI), far below the state ceiling. It requires JUST CAUSE for eviction citywide, enumerating the only permissible grounds (nonpayment, breach, nuisance, owner move-in, ELLIS ACT withdrawal, demolition, and a handful of others). No-fault evictions — owner or relative move-in, Ellis Act removal of the building from the rental market, capital improvements — trigger substantial RELOCATION PAYMENTS set by the ordinance and adjusted annually, and are hedged with strict procedural requirements and, for owner move-in, good-faith and residency conditions that are heavily litigated. The Ellis Act (a state law the city implements tightly) lets landlords exit the rental business but imposes re-rental restrictions and tenant rights. San Francisco also has a Tenant Buyout ordinance regulating and disclosing buyout agreements, and strong tenant-harassment protections. Costa-Hawkins means a tenant in a 1920s Mission apartment has full Rent Ordinance protection while a tenant in a new SoMa tower relies on AB 1482 alone.

The city's market and geography add distinctive issues. TECH-BOOM DISPLACEMENT drove waves of Ellis Act evictions and owner-move-in disputes, especially in the Mission, and tenant organizing responded with some of the country's strongest counter-measures. EARTHQUAKE RISK is ever-present — the 1906 and 1989 Loma Prieta quakes shape building law, and the city's MANDATORY SOFT-STORY RETROFIT program required seismic strengthening of older wood-frame multi-unit buildings (many of them rent-controlled), creating landlord-tenant friction over the work and its costs. Condo conversion is tightly restricted (the city's lottery and TIC — tenancy-in-common — market is a San Francisco peculiarity, where buyers share ownership of a multi-unit building because condo conversion is limited). Sea-level-rise and liquefaction zones (the Marina, Mission Bay, and filled bayfront areas) raise disclosure and insurance questions. Short-term-rental regulation (the city's strict Airbnb rules) governs another slice of the market.

Help is organized around the Rent Board and a deep tenant bar. The SAN FRANCISCO RENT BOARD is the first stop for rent-increase, eviction-notice, and passthrough questions — a free city resource that counsels tenants and landlords, holds hearings on many disputes, and publishes the annual allowable increase. The city funds tenant right-to-counsel through the NO EVICTIONS WITHOUT REPRESENTATION ordinance, providing free lawyers to tenants facing eviction — a landmark program. The Eviction Defense Collaborative, the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, the AIDS Legal Referral Panel, the Asian Law Caucus, La Raza Centro Legal, and the Bar Association of San Francisco's programs represent tenants; the Housing Rights Committee and the San Francisco Tenants Union provide counseling. The practical playbook for a San Francisco tenant: determine your building's construction date FIRST (pre-June-1979 usually means Rent Ordinance coverage); respond to any eviction notice or unlawful detainer immediately (only five days to answer a served complaint) and get a free lawyer through the right-to-counsel program; demand the correct relocation payment for any no-fault eviction; scrutinize any buyout offer (you have disclosure rights and a rescission period); and take rent-increase or harassment disputes to the Rent Board. For homeowners, a foreclosure notice triggers HBOR rights and a short window — call a HUD-approved counselor immediately.