Client Alert: From the Scheer Law Group: City of Oakland, CA seeks to Further Limit Landlord Rights via Increased Rent Control/Eviction Control Restrictions

To All SLG Clients and Affiliates.
Date: July 21, 2016
From: Spencer Scheer ( Please see Email Alert From Jonathan Seigel below)
Subject: Client Alert: From the Scheer Law Group:

City of Oakland, CA seeks to Further Limit Landlord Rights via Increased Rent Control/Eviction Control Restrictions

The Oakland City Council has voted to amend the existing rent control ordinance and has approved a ballot measure to be voted on in November containing significant changes to the rent control ordinance. The rent control ordinance has been amended to require landlords to petition the Board for any rent increase exceeding 5% (currently, the burden is on tenants to file petitions opposing rent increases), to limit the amount of capital improvements that may be passed through to tenants, and to require owners of duplexes and triplexes to live in their buildings for two years before the buildings would become exempt from rent control.

The ballot measure would incorporate some of the amendments set forth above to the rent ordinance, thereby assuring that a future city council could not rescind the amendments, impose eviction controls on all units constructed before 1995 (currently, eviction controls are imposed only on units constructed before 1981), and require relocation payments to tenants where the landlord conducts an owner move in eviction.

Stay tuned for further developments.

Please call Jon Seigel of SLG if you would like to discuss