San Francisco Chronicle - February 2, 2006
Part of Ellis Act overturned in appeal
By Bob Egelko

A state appeals court has overturned a San Francisco ordinance that required landlords who were getting out of the rental business to estimate to their tenants how much money they would be paid for relocation assistance.

The ordinance was part of a package of local laws designed to help renters who face evictions under the Ellis Act, a 1984 state law allowing owners to remove property from the rental market without city approval.

In San Francisco, a landlord must pay $4,500 to an evicted low-income tenant and $3,000 to disabled tenants or those 62 and older. A recent ordinance extending relocation assistance to all displaced tenants is being challenged in a separate lawsuit.

Under the ordinance, landlords were required to disclose how much they believed they would owe each tenant, based on their assessment of whether a tenant fit into one or more of the eligible categories. The city argued that compliance was easy and would let tenants devote their energy to finding new housing, rather than searching for documentation of their status, an argument that persuaded Superior Court Judge Ronald Quidachay in August.

But the Court of Appeal said in a ruling made public Wednesday that requiring such statements from landlords, without documentation from tenants, could cause complications if a tenant later challenged eviction, and would therefore exact "a prohibitive price on a landlord's right to exit the rental market.''