In San Francisco, tenant protections remain in place until the end of August, but nothing prevents us from filing an unlawful detainer action in the interim.

As recently reported by San Francisco Rent Board, local eviction protections for non-payment of rent during COVID extend through August 30, 2023.

Initially, these protections were set to expire upon the end of the Mayor's emergency proclamation, which is set to expire on June 30, 2023. Yet as state, local, and federal pandemic responses faded away, San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston wanted to ensure the outlived eviction ban stuck around a bit longer.

Taking to Twitter, Preston called for a 60-day extension to The City's moratorium on evictions when tenants can't pay rent because of COVID-related hardship. Seemingly with nary discussion, the Board of Supervisors unanimously complied by voting to extend the moratorium to cover rent payments that come due within 60 days after the Mayor's emergency proclamation ends, which gives us the end date of August 30.

Does this mean that tenants can refuse to pay rent with impunity and housing providers have to wait until the Fall to recover possession of the premises? Not so fast. 

Nothing prohibits landlords from serving 3-day notices to demand rent and our office has been aggressive in doing so. Better to take action now than to allow a problem to fester and guarantee waiting even longer to get cash-flowing again.

It's entirely possible that the tenant can argue that the failure to pay rent was due to an underlying hardship related to COVID, but this will ultimately be up to a judge or jury to sort out.

What we have in law is competing narratives, and Bornstein Law has successfully argued that claims of a COVID-related hardship are without merit, leading to clients not only obtaining a judgment for possession of the premises but being awarded monetary damages to boot.