By: Oakland Lawyer
As you are probably aware, I consider Oakland, CA my home base. Oakland, a prominent city in the Bay Area is known for many things…good and bad, but there’s no place like it.
Of course, popularity brings other problems and one currently facing Oakland, and surrounding cities is housing. In fact, Oakland has become so popular that one of the more prominent issues now is affordable housing. The influx of new people has made the cost and availability of housing a central issue for many people. Correspondingly, the influx of people has changed not only the rental housing market but the real estate market. Property values in Oakland have recovered substantially from where they were a mere 6 years ago; when most people were disputing the appraised value and somewhere underwater.
Some cities in the Bay Area have rent control….mainly, San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley. In response to recent influxes, some cities have recently initiated rent ordinances…think Alameda, Emeryville, and Richmond.
Most people are keenly aware of whether their rent is controlled. However, even if your rent is not controlled, one of the added benefits of rent ordinances in most jurisdictions is just cause eviction. Just cause eviction in Oakland…and similarly, other rent control cities means that you can only be evicted for certain reasons. In Oakland, those eleven reasons are:
- Failure to pay rent;
- Breach of lease;
- Failure to sign a lease extension that is materially the same as the original lease;
- Willful and substantial damage to the premises beyond normal wear and tear;
- Disorderly conduct that destroys the peace and quiet of other tenants;
- Use of the premises for an illegal purpose including the manufacture, sale, or use of illegal drugs;
- Continued denial of landlord access in violation of Civil Code section 1954;
- The owner of record seeks in good faith, without ulterior reasons and with honest intent, to recover possession of the rental unit for his or her occupancy as a principal residence where he or she has previously occupied the rental unit as his or her principal residence and has the right to recover possession for his or her occupancy as a principal residence under a written rental agreement with the current tenants;
- The owner of record seeks in good faith, without ulterior reasons and with honest intent, to recover possession for his or her own use and occupancy as his or her principal residence, or for the use and occupancy as a principal residence by the owner of record’s spouse, domestic partner, child, parent, or grandparent;
- Temporary relocation for three months for substantial repairs; and
- The owner of record seeks to permanently remove the unit from the housing market (also known as an Ellis Act eviction).
You’ll notice after reviewing the above-referenced list…there are some noticeable absences. For example…the expiration of a rental agreement, the sale of property (including transfers due to FORECLOSURE), conversion to condominiums or changes in the federal Section 8 status of a unit.
That is to say, the common reasons people think they must move, or are cited as the reason their landlord gave them for asking them to leave, are not the bases for them to be legally evicted. This means that if they don’t leave voluntarily, the landlord cannot evict them. Therefore, if you’re a tenant, living in a just cause city, make sure you confirm that any notices from your landlord are legal, valid and without substantive defects. A legally valid notice is one without substantive defects that the tenant can use to avoid leaving.
If the landlord’s notice contains substantive defects, the Court will dismiss any eviction action, based on it. Most people don’t realize that if the landlord’s notice is not legally valid, he cannot force you from the property, or evict you.
The information provided in this article is not legal advice, does not constitute a solicitation and no attorney-client or confidential relationship is or will be formed by reading this article.
On the Record. 