Amendments to Health Code as Recommended by SFAA and Partners

On Tuesday, November 16, 2010 the Board of Supervisors passed an amendment to the Health Code with a ten-to-zero final vote. Dr. Mitch Katz and Supervisor John Avalos authored the original legislation.

The original legislation was extremely punitive to rental housing providers. However, under the leadership of Mayor Gavin Newsom, Supervisor Elsbernd, Supervisor Chu, Supervisor Dufty and Supervisor Alioto-Pier, the San Francisco Apartment Association and its industry partners were able to obtain some very beneficial and worthy amendments.

Highlights of the original version:

• Annual requirement for building registration with the Health Department for all owners,
• $1,000.00 a day fine for rental owners when issued a citation for bed bugs, and
• Building owner named as responsible party in bed bug citations.

Highlights of final version:

• No mandatory building registration,
• $1,000.00 a day fine kicks in only if there is not a remediation plan in place, and
• Tenants included as responsible party in bed bug citations.

We appreciate Supervisor John Avalos’ willingness to listen to our concerns and make amendments to his original legislation.

Congratulations to the members of the San Francisco Apartment Association for another job well done!