Bronitsky Law

In the recent case of Johnson v City & County of San Francisco (2006) 137 Cal.App.4th 7 the California Court of Appeal held that the San Francisco Rent Control Ordinance which required a landlord to tell a tenant the amount the landlord believed the tenant was entitled to under the Ellis Act was invalid.

Johnson owned an interest in a multi-unit residential building in San Francisco and had an exclusive right to occupy a unit in that building, from which he sought to evict the tenants. The San Francisco Ordinance required landlords who sought to evict under the Ellis Act (Govt C §§7060-7060.7)—which allows landlords to evict tenants in order to go out of business and to pay their tenants’ relocation costs (people with disabilities or older than 62 received additional benefits) to notify their tenants about their right to receive payment and “the amount of payment which the landlord believes to be due.” Johnson challenged this requirement in the Superior Court which ruled against Johnson.

The California Court of Appeal reversed the trial court, holding that while the Ellis Act does not prohibit local governments from providing procedural protections designed to prevent abuse of the right to evict tenants, it completely occupies the field of substantive eviction controls and therefore preempts the belief requirement because the belief requirement creates an substantive defense not permitted under the Ellis Act.

The Court of Appeal held that Government Code §7060.4 provides detailed guidance regarding the types of local ordinance provisions that may be enacted to require property owners to give notice of their intent to leave the rental market. By carefully spelling out only specific types of notice that may be require, the Ellis Act clearly sets forth the understanding that only those types of notice are authorized and other, additional notice requirements are therefore not allowed.

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