An ordinance that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed on Jan. 25 will require landlords to give residential tenants a 10-day notice and an opportunity to cure before commencing eviction proceedings for just cause. This extends the three-day notice requirement under state law.
The 10-day notice and cure requirement will apply to just cause evictions for: (1) failure to pay rent; (2) violating a material term of the tenancy; (3) committing or allowing a nuisance that is severe, continuing, or recurring; (4) using or permitting the unit to be used for an illegal purpose; (5) refusal to execute a written extension or renewal of the lease under the same terms as previously existed; and (6) refusal to allow the landlord access to the unit as required under state or local law. If a landlord intends to evict a tenant on one of these grounds, the landlord must give written notice to the tenant that specifies the alleged violation and warns that failure to cure within 10 days may result in initiation of eviction proceedings.
The new ordinance, which amends Chapter 37 of the San Francisco Administrative Code, will not apply to evictions based on a tenant causing or creating an imminent risk of physical harm to person or property or if the landlord is seeking to recover possession based on the non-payment of rent or any other unpaid financial obligation of a tenant that came due between March 1, 2020, and March 31, 2022. This later exception relates to tenant relief under California’s COVID-19 statutes.
San Francisco’s new ordinance is more protective than the state’s eviction notice requirement under the Tenant Protection Act, California Civil Code section 1946.2. This section provides that a landlord must give a tenant a three-day notice to cure if the lease violation is curable. If the violation is not cured, the landlord may serve a three-day notice to quit the premises without opportunity to cure. In San Francisco, the new 10-day notice period would have to run without cure before a landlord could serve the three-day notice to quit.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the ordinance, which was passed unanimously, is expected to take effect in March after the Board takes a second vote, which is a procedural requirement, and the mayor signs it. There might, however, be a legal challenge. The Chronicle reports that a landlord group may sue to prevent the law from being implemented. Presumably, the challenge would be based on state-law preemption.
