San Francisco Landlords Get Skeptical Eye in Rent Rule Challenge

Landlord associations pushed Tuesday for a California appellate court to block a change to San Francisco’s eviction rules that prevent landlords from forcing tenants to leave an apartment by raising prices.

The city’s 2019 update to the eviction regulations illegally imposes additional penalties on property owners above and beyond what state law allows for, the landlords told the California Court of Appeal, First District.

California’s Costa-Hawkins Residential Housing Act exempts certain residential units from local rent control by stating that the owner can establish both the initial and subsequent rent rates. San Francisco’s new rule is preempted by that law, ...