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Next SFAA
Monthly Membership Meeting

Monday, May 20
Fort Mason, Building A
6:30 to 8:00 p.m.

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SFAA EVENTS & EDUCATION

Thanks to our sponsors and attendees for a very successful 2013 SFAA Trade Show! Click here to see highlights from Viva Las Vegas!

Below are selections from a recent edition of SFAA's San Francisco Apartment magazine. SFAA members receive the full magazine every month.

Feature
Supercharged Amenities
by Emily Landes

Court Talk
Deposit Details
by Clifford Fried

The TIC Corner
Meeting in the Middle
by D. Andrew Sirkin

Legal Q&A
Defining “Disability”
by Various Authors

Sacramento Report
Billions of Bills
by Debra Carlton

News from SF Apartment Magazine

  Stomped by the State
  SF Housing Authority May Be Forced to Close
  Possible Cuts to Muni, Housing Due to Sequester
  A Clearer Picture of Rental Housing Financing

SFAA and SF Rental Market in the News

San Francisco aiming to ease rent-hike jolts from seismic upgrades

Owners of San Francisco buildings most likely to collapse during a major earthquake are now required to make seismic upgrades in coming years, but can pass all costs to tenants.

While tenant advocates had initially fought for a cost reduction for renters, they supported the proposal after city officials agreed to reform a tenant financial hardship program overseen by the Rent Board.

Read the full article here.

SF Weighs Requiring Soft-Story Earthquake Retrofits

Seismic upgrades costly but needed (SF Examiner, 3/20/2013): "What’s crystal clear is that The City cannot wait another 25 years to address the safety risks posed by soft-story buildings. After all, everyone will lose if nothing is done before the next Big One hits. The appropriate solution should allow building owners to recover all their costs while sparing tenants any more rent increases than are necessary to get this work done as soon as possible."

Huffington Post (2/14/2013): San Francisco earthquake retrofit proposal could put renters at risk

"A proposal to seismically retrofit some 3,000 buildings in San Francisco has come under fire due to fears that it could cause a wave of rent increases and potentially problematic temporary evictions."

On KQED's Forum program Feb. 5, SFAA's Charley Goss discusses the proposal to mandate earthquake retrofitting of soft-story structures by 2020.

ABC News 7 (2/5/2013): San Francisco introduces earthquake building guidelines

SF Examiner (2/5/2013): Earthquake-safety upgrades of vulnerable buildings in San Francisco laid out

"San Francisco Apartment Association spokesman Charley Goss said the organization is supportive of the proposal because 'an owner is given sufficient time and financing options.'"

A Warning for Hosts of Airbnb Travelers

Back in September, Nigel Warren rented out his bedroom in the apartment where he lives for $100 a night on Airbnb, the fast-growing Web site for short-term home and apartment stays. His roommate was cool with it, and his guests behaved themselves during their stay in the East Village building where he is a renter.

But when he returned from a three-night trip to Colorado, he heard from his landlord. Special enforcement officers from the city showed up while he was gone, and the landlord received five violations for running afoul of rules related to illegal transient hotels. Added together, the potential fines looked as if they could reach over $40,000.

Read the full story in the New York Times (11/30/2012).

Monoxide detector rules expand Jan. 1

Carbon monoxide is known as the silent killer, but on Jan. 1, millions of Californians will be safer under a law requiring landlords to provide alarms that detect the gas in apartment houses and other multi-family buildings.

About 23,000 multi-unit residences in San Francisco will be affected in this second installment of a gradual rollout of a law enacted in 2010 that requires detectors for the deadly gas, which is odorless and colorless.

Read the full story on SFGate (11/29/2012).

S.F. bedbug exterminations to be tracked

San Francisco bedbugs: Stand up and be counted. That is the message from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which approved an ordinance this month intended to give the city a more accurate picture of where the pests lurk.

Exterminators will now be required to report to the Department of Public Health about the number of units that they treat for bedbugs each month. While they won't have to include the address of the infested apartments or hotels, they will be required to identify each unit's census tract to help chart the bugs' distribution around the city.

Read the full story on SF Gate (11/20/2012).

Proposal would require landlords to designate non-smoking apartments

Although they often butt heads, landlords and tenant advocates have joined forces in support of a proposed new ordinance that apartment owners believe could increase the supply of smoke-free rental housing in The City.

SFAA would likely support an outright citywide ban on smoking in apartments, since smoking causes landlords all sorts of problems, including increased maintenance costs.

Read the full story in the SF Examiner (11/15/2012).

Rent increases: As of March 1, 2013 the new annual rent increase rate is 1.9%.