What if your monthly rent went from $3100 to $6000?

[Liberal_in_LA]

Renters get boot with big rate hike


Dana-Lee Smirin has rented a house in San Francisco's Dolores Park neighborhood since 2008 and considered it "a haven of stability" as she battles Hodgkin's lymphoma and the aftermath of a car accident.

So she was distressed when her landlady informed her that she wants to sell the house and almost doubled Smirin's rent, from $3,100 to $6,000. Smirin viewed it as a tactic to get her out because it's easier to sell a vacant property.

"The only way to evict me is to raise my rent to an abominable amount I can't afford," said Smirin, 42, who is on disability leave from her job as a sustainability consultant. "Then if I can't pay it, she can serve me a three-day notice to evict."

Single-family homes, such as Smirin's rental, are exempt from San Francisco's strict rent-control laws, which cap rent increases for multiunit buildings. Landlords cannot evict tenants from any kind of unit without just cause, but they can utilize several loopholes - such as big rent increases in single-family homes and violations of the rental agreement in apartment buildings - to create a legal reason to evict tenants or encourage them to move.

Those loopholes are coming into play now, as both rents and sale prices escalate in the city. Tenant activists say the incidence of renters being forced out is likewise on the rise. San Francisco Rent Board statistics show that eviction numbers have stayed consistent over the past two years, but advocates say renters often move out before the point of eviction

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/Renters-get-boot-with-big-rate-hike-3835648.php#ixzz25RdOWfrR

[JaneyVee]

1. The rent is too damn high.

[BlueStreak]

30. Nooooooo.

Damn. Too late.


"Did I hear my name?"

[NNN0LHI]

2. Couldn't happen to me because $3100 is more than I bring in per month

[On the Road]

3. The Owner Should be Able to Sell the Property

that's the difference between owning and renting.

[KarenS]

6. absolutely, the owner should be able to sell the property, however,

giving your tenant appropriate notice is an honorable and humane thing to do.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

7. After reading the article

I can't say that I blame the owner...if she gives notice that she wants to stop renting the house, she has to pay a $5000 relocation allowance, plus potentially more expenses due to the tenant's disability.

Looks to me like the law is an enticement to owners to do it this way, sad as it is.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

4. I don't understand

why owners wouldn't just wait until the lease is up, and then not renew.

[loli phabay]

32. owner might need to sell due to their own circumstances i dont know

[WI_DEM]

5. hell, I'd be hard pressed to pay $1000 per month for rent!

[Liberal_in_LA]

16. You would shift more of your pay into rent, away from food and such

$1200 would get you a nice enough one bedroom.

[sufrommich]

8. Holy hell, is $3100.00 a month the good news??nt

[abumbyanyothername]

10. Welcome to CA.

And even at that, they keep moving in. I pay $3100 and I think it's a bargain.

[Liberal_in_LA]

14. in SF, yes.

[Robb]

9. Seems the Bay Area is still ungodly expensive.

[abumbyanyothername]

11. SF/NYC/LA.

Manhattan high end real estate is approaching the highs of 2007.

[Robb]

13. You know you can live like a king for that in the rest of the country.

Not for nothing, but if wages aren't three times better, y'all are nuts.

[abumbyanyothername]

17. We spend next to nothing on

heating and cooling.

And then there's walking outside to 75 degree weather in January.

And August.

[Liberal_in_LA]

19. true. I don't use much heating in the winter.

[We are Devo]

25. Been here all 48 years of my life..

Haven't found a nicer state. Pasadena is a beautiful city with great colleges and universities, restaurants, weather, etc. My second favorite spot is Kauai. Now that is expensive!

[Liberal_in_LA]

15. That wouldn't rent you a bedroom in certain parts of LA and SF

Bedrooms go for about $800.

[darkangel218]

18. Thats why i dont live there, couldnt afford either city :)

[diane in sf]

39. Only if you have a master tenant with a really old lease, they're mostly up to $1000+ a bedroom here

I have all my Buddhist friends saying long life prayers for my nasty old landlady because dog knows what will happen when she meets her reward.

[RebelOne]

35. I am fortunate as I only pay $377 a month.

I own a mobile home, live in a mobile home park and only pay $377 a month that includes water and trash pickup. People look down their noses at us mobile home dwellers and consider us trailer park trash. But we own our homes and are not saddled with huge mortgages.

[NotThisTime]

20. I'd wonder how the hell I could pay 3100.00....

[Liberal_in_LA]

21. get a roommate? you each pay $1550? She's renting an entire house

[Art_from_Ark]

36. Roommates were hard enough to live with in college

I couldn't imagine sharing a house now with another man. It would be just like The Odd Couple. Bleh.

[TreasonousBastard]

22. Near as I can figure out, Rev. Kelsey bought the house for...

something over $800,000 a while back and rented it to pay the mortgage and taxes while she sat on it and lived somewhere else. Buying as an "investment" seems the thing.

Now it's worth well over a million and she wants to cash in because she's allegedly broke, or at least strapped.

She has to get rid if the disabled tenant sell it, so she raises the rent which means said disabled woman scoots without having to pay for her relocation.

I'm not sure how much sympathy I have for either one of them. Disabled she may be but tenant doesn't seem to have much trouble digging up over 30 grand a year for rent and the owner bought the thing as an investment so shouldn't be able to sneak out of a deal if things just aren't to her liking or it will cost her a few extra bucks.

Now, aside from an illustration of ballooning housing costs in popular areas, what is the point of this battle?

[SickOfTheOnePct]

23. Investment property or not

I find it ludicrous that any property owner should have to pay relocation expenses for tenants should they decide they want to live in or sell the house.

[TreasonousBastard]

26. Why? If you're a landlord you're a landlord and in business as a landlord...

if you don't want the ancillary obligations of being a landlord then just don't be one.

Your tenant has a life and a home and is paying for it-- how does a landlord's ownership of a property allow disrupting the tenant's life just for additional profit or convenience?

[SickOfTheOnePct]

28. I agree that changes shouldn't be permitted in the middle of a lease

But if it's coming up on time for the lease to expire, and the owner gives notice that he or she wants to stop renting the house, I see no reason whatsoever why the owner should have to pay relocation expenses.

I don't know if that's what happened in this case, but from the way the article reads, it doesn't matter. Perhaps I misunderstood it, but they way I read it, it didn't differentiate between during the lease or after the lease ends.

Why should an owner that decides he or she no longer wants to rent the house be responsble for paying for the tenant to move out?

[diane in sf]

37. It's part of a package to discourage frivolous evictions. The housing and rental markets are brutal

here in SF.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

40. I can see it for frivolous evictions

But wanting to move back into your own house or wanting to sell it isn't frivolous, IMO. It should have to be done once the lease is over, but if I'm a landlord that wants to move back into my house, why should I have to pay to relocate a tenant? That should be the tenant's responsiblity, not the homeowner's.

[We are Devo]

24. Not sure this is legal in CA...

Back in '98 I was paying $600 for an apt. and the owner decided to double it in 30 days. After some checking, I found that legally they had to give 60 days notice for an increase that size. I promptly moved in 60 days!

[Liberal_in_LA]

27. new building owner increased all our rents by about 50% about the same time

we all moved out. ALL of us. On my move out day, the manager came to talk to me. Said he was sorry to see me go, that they were adding new amenities - turning one unit into a gym.

[thelordofhell]

29. It isn't legal for an apartment complex

However, the example in the article is a home, which isn't covered by the same laws as an apartment complex

[We are Devo]

34. Aha. Good point

My rental was a garage apt.

[Drahthaardogs]

31. It would not matter. I could not afford either.

I am hosed either way.

[Cleita]

33. That's why we voted in rent control in Santa Monica back in the late seventies.

When the Jarvis Amendment passed, rents started doubling and tripling because property values shot up. Of course the landlords, who can afford better lawyers than the average renter would find a thousand loopholes, and they can throw money to politicians weaken the laws. I see even with years of rent control in San Francisco that the tenants are losing.

[JVS]

38. If I had $3100 a month to spend on rent, I think I'd end up just fine.

$6000/month is ridiculous but only marginally more ridiculous than $3100