SB 1439, 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 with a public entity of an intent to withdraw accommodations or prosecuting an action to recover possession of accommodations, or threatening to do so,begin delete if notend deletebegin insert unlessend insert all the owners of the accommodations have been owners
of record for 5 continuous years or morebegin insert, except as specified,end insert or with respect to property that the owner acquired within 10 years after providing notice of an intent to withdraw accommodations at a different property. Among other things, 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 accommodations and to identify all persons or entities with an ownership interest in an entity, which information would be available for public inspection. The bill would provide specified, nonexclusive remedies that the city and county would be authorized to provide 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 bybegin delete statute, ordinance, ballot measure, executive begin insert ordinance or ballot measureend insert
7directive, resolution, or regulationend delete
8 may provide that:
9(1) An owner of accommodations shall not file a notice with a
10public entity of an intent to withdraw accommodations pursuant
11to this chapter, prosecute an action to
recover possession of
12accommodations pursuant to this chapter, or threaten to do either
13of these things, unless all the owners of the accommodations have
14been owners of record for five continuous years or more. If an
15owner of record is not a natural person, then all persons or entities
16with an ownership interest in that entity shall have held that interest
17for five continuous years.begin insert The five-year ownership requirement in
18this paragraph shall not apply to an owner of accommodations
19who is a natural person, who owns no more than two properties,
20and who owns no more than a total of four residential units.end insert
21(2) If an owner of accommodations files a notice of intent with
22the public entity to withdraw accommodations under this chapter,
23and the owner subsequently acquires a
new property containing
24accommodations within 10 years of that filing, the owner shall not
25withdraw accommodations pursuant to this chapter, prosecute an
26action to recover possession of accommodations pursuant to this
27chapter, or threaten to do either of these things, with respect to the
P3 1later acquired property. For purposes of this paragraph, an owner
2of accommodations includes any person or entity with an
3ownership interest in an entity that owns the accommodations.
4(3) An owner of accommodations, or any person or entity with
5an ownership interest in an entity that owns the accommodations,
6shall not act in concert with a coowner, successor owner,
7prospective owner, agent, employee, or assignee, to circumvent
8the limitations of paragraph (1) or (2).
9(4) An owner of
accommodations notifying the city and county
10of an intention to withdraw accommodations from rent or lease
11shall identify each person or entity with an ownership interest in
12the accommodations, and if any entity is not a natural person,
13identify all persons or entities with an ownership interest in that
14entity. This information shall not be confidential and shall be
15available for public inspection.
16(c) The city and county may provide that a person or entity that
17violates the provisions described in subdivision (b) is liable to the
18tenant or lessee for actual damages, special damages of not less
19than two thousand dollars ($2,000) for each violation, and
20reasonable attorney fees and costs in an amount fixed by the court.
21The remedy provided by this section is not exclusive and shall not
22preclude either the tenant or lessee from pursuing any other
remedy
23provided by law.
The Legislature finds and declares that a special law
25is necessary and that a general law cannot be made applicable
26within the meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the California
27Constitution because of the recent significant increase in the
28evictions under the Ellis Act in the City and County of San
29Francisco and the consequent displacement of long-time residents
30and severe reduction of availability of affordable rental housing
31in San Francisco.
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