As proud East Bay residents, we encouragingly watched Oakland become an emerging force throughout the Bay Area. Yet Bornstein Law has always maintained that the propulsion of rent control measures has moved the needle of progress in the opposite direction and unnecessarily penalizes studious “mom and pop” landlords who are the bedrock of the community and the biggest engine of affordable housing.
Oakland City Hall disagreed with our assessment.
Oakland renters who occupy dwellings subject to Measure EE will now be entitled to re-location payments when an owner attempts to recover possession of a tenant-occupied unit for use as their primary place of residence, or a relative’s use where the landlord already lives in another unit in the building. Those payments are compliments of the Uniform Residential Tenant Relocation Ordinance and apply not only to owner move-in evictions, but to instances where a tenant is displaced because of the owner’s desire to effectuate a condo conversion.
A fundamental question we have been fielding from Oakland landlords is whether the new relocation rules apply to them, or if their properties are exempt. This calls for a careful review of your unique circumstances, but for the purposes of this discussion, we will assume that tenant relocation assistance is obligatory.
The effect of the ordinance is to extend relocation payments to all no-fault evictions – there were existing laws on the book that mandated relocation payments for only Ellis Act and code compliance evictions. The measure is one of many designed to make Oakland’s rent stabilization more closely mirror the policies of its sister rent-controlled cities in San Francisco and Berkeley.
How much the landlord must doll out will depend on the number of bedrooms that are in the unit.
- $6500 for studios and 1 bedrooms
- $8000 for 2 bedrooms
- $9,875 for 3+ bedrooms
These are the "base rates", if you will, but owners are required to dig deeper into the wallets if there are any tenants in the household who have low income, are elderly, disabled, or have minor children. One additional, lump sum payment of $2,500 per unit is due when any member of these vulnerable groups inhabit the dwelling.
Half of the standard relocation payment must be made when the eviction notice is served, with the balance due when the tenant vacates. The lump sum of $2,500, if applicable, must be paid within 15 days of when the tenant notifies the landlord of the tenant’s eligibility for the additional payment.
If a recalcitrant landlord does not make the required relocation payment, the tenant or their attorney cannot use the failure to pay a defense to an unlawful detainer action, but we hasten to say many other penalties await a landlord that does not comply with the law. Suffice it to say you don’t want to defend against them.
Of course, like most other matters that cross our desks, the law is cleaner on the page than in real life, with Oakland home to some of the most onerous and highly regulated rent control laws in the country. This minefield is best journeyed with the Oakland landlord lawyers at Bornstein Law.
Daniel is the founding attorney of Bornstein Law, the San Francisco Bay Area's foremost authority on managing landlord-tenant relationships, property management issues, and complex real estate litigation. Having protected the rights of property owners for over 23 years, he is also renowned for his educational workshops, his speaking engagements with numerous organizations, and as an expert witness. Contact his office today.
