Tuesday June 23, 2009 the San Francisco Board of Supervsiors enacted new renter protection laws.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors struck again in its on-going campaign to forcibly evict residential rental property owners from San Francisco and to further restrict the availability of vacant residential rental units. The Board of Supervisors blithely and totally ignores the unintended consequences of its actions on behalf of residential renters.

The Board of Supervisors passed out legislation which would do the following:

• Property owners could not move into their property if it means evicting a family.

• Tenants will have the right to add non-family roommates.

• Rent could not be increased where it would exceed one-third of a tenant’s income.

• CPI increases in rent could not be banked and done all at once.

• Blocked rent increases with additional tenants in the same apartment.

This collective assault on residential rental property owners means they will be closely scrutinizing the income and creditability of applicants. Marginal applicants won’t have a chance to have their application accepted. Property owners faced with these restrictions will take residential rental properties off the market rather than buy financial peril to their ability to make mortgage and property tax payments. Or worse, the residential property owner will take the property off the market by declaring the property an Ellis property and go TIC.

What truly needs to be done is to throw off the choking yoke of residential rent control completely and all the other entangling residential rental property regulations. Have the planning commission reassess its restrictions on new high density residential rental properties along mass transit corridors.

The Board of Supervisors instead of bleating the mantra of affordable housing needs to free up restrictive zoning for residential rental properties. Close down the City owned golf courses and turn the land over to residential rental property developers for mixed use light commercial development. Do the same for the properties where schools have been closed down.  Shut down the Redevelopment Agency and its anti-rental clique.

Quite simply get San Francisco government out of the residential rental property business and allow the open free market to develop residential rental units as needed, where needed with competitive free market rental rates.

Read More Here