In a never-ending battle to keep the rental housing industry educated about local ordinances, let’s take a trip around the Bay Area to see what changes are on the horizon.
San Francisco says to landlords: Pay your Rent Board Fee
The deadline to submit a Request for Exemption from the 2025 Rent Board fee has passed. Units without a valid and approved exemption will be billed for the Rent Board Fee payable by March 1, 2025. Note that requesting a Rent Board Fee exemption does not satisfy Rent Board Housing Inventory reporting requirements.
SF landlords should also be aware that even as the costs of doing business are rising, the allowable rent increase for covered units effective March 1, 2024, through February 28, 2025, is a pittance at 1.7%.
Know anyone in Berkeley?
Just in time for the holidays, Measure BB took effect on December 20, 2024. Beholden by tenants’ advocates, the City Council gave the gift of still more onerous rules for housing providers to follow.
Let’s take a look at key changes to Berkeley’s regulatory regime →
Concord’s Rent Registry Program is a work in progress.
The deadline to register residential rental units with the City of Concord has been extended to February 28, 2025, but we have always recommended that housing providers do not wait until the last minute to comply.
On other fronts, there are new notice requirements for tenants occupying partially covered units such as single-family homes and condominiums, and tenant information is no longer required as the portal is being updated.
Oakland is, well, being Oakland again.
In several respects, Oakland has eclipsed San Francisco and Berkeley as home to the most pernicious landlording rules, but it has worsened lately.
Housing providers are in store for limited banked rent increases and will be stripped of property owners if they fall behind on business taxes. Regardless of the merits of a claim, tenants will also have more time to file petitions with the Rent Board and perhaps most importantly, banked rent increases are being throttled back.