San Francisco definitely has market conditions unlike most markets in the Bay Area.  With rent control & tenant rights alone, there are a host of nuances that one (I!) must be aware of when helping clients evaluate purchasing a property that is tenant occupied.  The Owner Move-in Eviction is one process where a property owner can gain occupancy of a tenant occupied unit.

Here are the basics of an OMI as provided by David Gellman, a S.F. based attorney who specializes in landlord/tenant/real estate law.

OWNER MOVE-IN EVICTIONS (OMI)
In most situations, an owner may recover possession of a rental unit to use or occupy the unit as the owner’s principal place of residence for at least three years. A tenant who has resided in the rental unit for twelve months or more is entitled to a 60-day eviction notice. A tenant who has resided in the rental unit for less than twelve months is entitled to a 30-day eviction notice.
There are several requirements and restrictions on performing an owner move-in (OMI) eviction, including:

Requisite Ownership: The San Francisco Superior Court Appellate Division has determined that the evicting owner must own at least a 25% interest in the property.

Present Intent to Establish Principal Place of Residence: The evicting owner must have the present intent of establishing the unit as the owner’s principal place of residence within three months of gaining possession of the property, and thereafter occupying the unit as the owner’s principal place of residence for at least the next three consecutive years.  This requirement assures that tenants are displaced only for bonafide owner move-in reasons, and discourages landlords from evicting low-rent tenants and re-renting to market-rent tenants.

If the evicting owner fails either to move in to the unit within three months, or to thereafter occupy the unit as the owner’s principal residence for at least three consecutive years, the law presumes that the tenant was evicted in bad faith, and the owner may be held liable for wrongful eviction, at a substantial cost.

Restriction to One Owner Move-In Eviction per Building: An OMI eviction may be used to gain possession of only one unit per building. An OMI eviction creates an “owner’s unit,” and any future OMI in the building may be used only to gain possession of that same “owner’s unit.”This restriction affects only those OMI evictions carried out after December 18, 1998.

Ownership of a Comparable Unit: If the landlord owns a comparable unit that is vacant and available, the landlord may not attempt an owner move-in eviction.

Ownership of a Non-Comparable Unit: If the landlord owns a non-comparable unit that is available, the landlord may attempt the owner move-in eviction, but must offer the displaced tenant the opportunity to relocate to the non-comparable unit, albeit at market rent.

Relocation Assistance: The evicting owner must pay $4,744 in relocation assistance to each authorized occupant (“Eligible Tenant”), regardless of age, who has resided in the rental unit for twelve months or more, up to $14,234 per unit. The evicting owner must also pay an additional $3,164 to each household with an Eligible Tenant who has at least one child under the age of 18 years living in the unit, and to each Eligible Tenant who is over 60 years of age or disabled. The required relocation assistance is inflation-adjusted annually, every March.

Protected Tenants: A tenant is protected from an owner move-in eviction if he or she falls into one of three protected classes: tenants who are 60 years of age and have resided in the rental unit for 10 years or more; tenants who are disabled and have resided in the rental unit for 10 years or more; and tenants who are catastrophically ill and have resided in the rental unit for 5 years or more. This protection does not apply to tenants in a unit which is the only unit owned by the landlord in the building.

RELATIVE OWNER MOVE-IN EVICTIONS (ROMI)

An owner may recover possession of a rental unit to allow the owner’s close relative to use or occupy the unit as that relative’s principal place of residence only if the owner lives in the building or is simultaneously seeking to recover possession of a unit in the building through the owner move-in process. All other OMI-related requirements and restrictions apply.

An exception to the protected tenant rule gives special treatment to an elderly relative: If all rental units in the building where the owner resides are occupied by protected tenants, then the owner may evict one protected tenant to provide a home to the owner’s elderly relative.

SALE OF CONDOMINIUM EVICTIONS

An owner who completes a subdivision of his or her property into condominium units may evict a tenant in order to have the unit vacant for sale. Tenants have special rights under the San Francisco Subdivision Code, which govern when, and under what circumstances, this eviction may take place.

5/08:  Goldstein, Gellman, Melbostad, Gibson & Harris LLP•415.673.5600 •www.g3mh.com