I’m looking to retire and want to sell my San Francisco duplex. One unit is vacant, the other is occupied by a tenant who quit her job after getting hurt at work and is now on disability. I offered her “cash for keys” but she is adamant about staying put. She’s been there for 5 months, and so my question is 2-fold.

The new buyer insists on delivering the unit vacant. With the tenant refusing to move, it seems my only option is an Ellis Act eviction. There are 120-day notices and one-year notices. Does the year notice apply because the tenant is on disability?

 

If you are going down that route, you have to serve your tenant with a notice of termination of tenancy requiring her to quit the premises on the effective date of withdrawal, and this is 120 days after the Rent Board has been notified of your intent to take the units off the rental market.

While elderly or disabled tenants who have lived in the unit for a year or longer have the right to extend the date of withdrawal from 120 days to one year, your tenant has only been in occupation of the unit for 5 months so they have no such right - they haven’t been there a year.

Ellis’ing a building is an enormously complex process that comes with a host of procedural requirements and hefty relocation payments.

My question to you is if you are attempting to sell the duplex, why would you want to pursue an Ellis Act eviction? The new buyer would be hamstrung on what they could do with the property.

 

The buyer is a mother who wants to occupy one unit and have her daughter move into the other one because her daughter has a one-year-old child and the buyer wants to lend a helping hand in raising her grandchild.

 

In that case, the potential buyer can purchase the building, move into the vacant unit, and thereafter go through the motions of a Relative Move-In eviction (RMI).

 

They don’t want to go through that dance. The buyer who submitted an offer insists on buying the property vacant.

 

In that case, you have little options and you may just need to wait to find another buyer. You indicated that the buyer is not open to a discussion about a tenant buyout agreement, so barring a “just cause” reason for eviction, there is little recourse to deliver the property vacant.

 

Can relocation payments be negotiated? Or should I just offer more money to the tenant?

 

Relocation payments are not up for negotiation. They are prescribed by law and set in stone. Certain vulnerable tenants are entitled to even more money.

When you propose offering more money to the tenant, the concern I have is if the tenant says no, she means no. When a tenant is not open to a buyout discussion, the door is shut. The matter is done.

Landlords cannot continually hound a tenant with offers to move out. Repeated entreaties and arm-twisting can even invite a harassment lawsuit.