SB 364, as amended, Leno. Residential real property: withdrawal of accommodations.
Existing law, commonly known as the Ellis Act, generally prohibits public entities from adopting any statute, ordinance, or regulation, or taking any administrative action, to compel the owner of residential real property to offer or to continue to offer accommodations, as defined, in the property for rent or lease.
This bill would authorize the City and County of San Francisco to prohibit an owner of accommodations from filing a notice of an intent to withdraw accommodations or prosecuting an action to recover possession of accommodations, or threatening these actions, unless all the owners of the accommodations have been owners of record for 5 continuous years or more, except as specified, orbegin insert from doing soend insert with respect to property that the owner acquired within 10 years after providing notice of an intent to withdraw accommodations at a different property. The bill would also permit the city and county to require an owner of accommodations notifying the city and county of an intention to withdraw accommodations from rent or lease to identify each person or entity with an ownership interest in the accommodationsbegin insert,end insert and to identify all persons or entities with an ownership interest in an entity. This information would be available for public inspection. The bill would provide specified, nonexclusive remedies that the city and county would be authorized to impose for a violation of these provisions.
This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the City and County of San Francisco.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
Section 7060.8 is added to the Government Code,
2to read:
(a) This section shall apply only to a city that is also
4a county.
5(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, the city
6and county by ordinance or ballot measure may provide that:
7(1) begin insert(A)end insertbegin insert end insert An owner of accommodations shall not file a notice
8with a public entity of an intent to withdraw accommodations
9pursuant to this chapter, prosecute an action to recover possession
10of accommodations
pursuant to this chapter, or threaten to do either
11of these things, unless all the owners of the accommodations have
12been owners of record for five continuous years or more. If an
13owner of record is not a natural person, then all persons or entities
14with an ownership interest in that entity shall have held that interest
15for five continuous years.begin delete Theend deletebegin insert For purposes of determining whether
16all the owners of the accommodations have been owners of record
17for five continuous years or more, a change in the owner of record
18shall not occur under either of the following circumstances:end insert
19(i) When a revocable trust is created and the accommodations
20
are transferred to the trust.
21(ii) When the accommodations are inherited by a spouse, child
22or children, or grandchild or grandchildren.
23begin insert(B)end insertbegin insert end insertbegin insertTheend insert five-year ownership requirement in this paragraph shall
24not apply to an owner of accommodations who is a naturalbegin delete person,end delete
25begin insert
person or persons,end insert who owns no more than two properties, and
26who owns no more than a total of four residential units.begin insert For
27purposes of this subparagraph, an owner of accommodations who
28is a natural person or persons includes an owner of
29accommodations held by a revocable trust in which the beneficiary
30or beneficiaries is a natural person or persons.end insert
P3 1(2) If an owner of accommodations files a notice of intent with
2the public entity to withdraw accommodations under this chapter,
3and the owner subsequently acquires a new property containing
4accommodations within 10 years of that filing, the owner shall not
5withdraw accommodations pursuant to this chapter, prosecute an
6action to recover possession of accommodations pursuant to this
7chapter, or threaten to
do either of these things, with respect to the
8later acquired property. For purposes of this paragraph, an owner
9of accommodations includes any person or entity with an
10ownership interest in an entity that owns the accommodations.
11(3) An owner of accommodations, or any person or entity with
12an ownership interest in an entity that owns the accommodations,
13shall not act in concert with a coowner, successor owner,
14prospective owner, agent, employee, or assignee, to circumvent
15the limitations of paragraph (1) or (2).
16(4) An owner of accommodations notifying the city and county
17of an intention to withdraw accommodations from rent or lease
18shall identify each person or entity with an ownership interest in
19the accommodations, and if any entity is not a natural person,
20identify all
persons or entities with an ownership interest in that
21entity. This information shall not be confidential and shall be
22available for public inspection.
23(c) The city and county may provide that a person or entity that
24violates the provisions described in subdivision (b) is liable to the
25tenant or lessee for actual damages, special damages of not less
26than two thousand dollars ($2,000) for each violation, and
27reasonable attorney fees and costs in an amount fixed by the court.
28The remedy provided by this section is not exclusive and shall not
29preclude either the tenant or lessee from pursuing any other remedy
30provided by law.
The Legislature finds and declares that a special law
32is necessary and that a general law cannot be made applicable
33within the meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the California
34Constitution because of the recent significant increase in the
35evictions under the Ellis Act in the City and County of San
36Francisco and the consequent displacement of long-time residents
37and severe reduction of availability of affordable rental housing
38in San Francisco.
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