Landlords in California City Lose Bid to Dodge Relocation Fee

The relocation fee that landlords in Oakland, Calif., must pay their tenants when they terminate a lease on their own home so they can move back in isn’t an unconstitutional taking, the Ninth Circuit said Tuesday.

Instead, the fee is a valid regulation of the landlord-tenant relationship, the opinion by Judge Ryan D. Nelson said.

Lyndsey and Sharon Ballinger where in the military when they rented their Oakland home in 2016 because they were relocated to the East Coast. When they moved back to Oakland, they had to pay their tenants a $6,582 relocation fee to terminate the lease.

The ...