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On December 18, 2020, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors adopted unanimously Ordinance 265-20, which implements the city's first rental unit registration ordinance. With Proposition 21 on the ballot in November 2020, the Board of Supervisors was poised to implement vacancy control if the proposition had passed (and effectively repealed the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act).

With the defeat of Prop. 21 (except in San Francisco, where it enjoyed overwhelming support), Costa-Hawkins survived. But so did a modified version of a rent registry, 265-20, the Rental Unit Registration Ordinance. Starting July 1, 2022 (for buildings with 10 or more units) and March 1, 2023 (for all other residential units), owners must provide the following information, under penalty of perjury, to the Rent Board:

•    Name and business contact information (address, phone number, email address) of the owner(s) or property manager, if any, designated by the owner(s) to address habitability issues;
•    Business registration number for the unit, if any;
•    Approximate square footage and number of bedrooms and bathrooms in the unit;
•    Whether the unit is vacant or occupied, and the date the vacancy or occupancy commenced;
•    Start and end dates of any other vacancies or occupancies that have occurred during the previous 12 months;
•    For tenant-occupied units, the base rent, reported in $250 increments, and whether the base rent includes specified utilities (water/sewer, refuse/recycling, gas, electricity, etc.); and
•    any other information that the Rent Board deems appropriate following a noticed public meeting.

The Ordinance requires that owners obtain a license from the Rent Board before imposing any annual or banked rent increases.

The Rent Board is developing a portal that will enable owners to submit the required information online. It is important to note that registration is required for all residential units, not merely rental units (although units that are owner-occupied are only required to indicate as much, without providing the additional information).

Getting around the Petris Act
It may seem bizarre that the city asks owners for the rent in "$250 increments," instead of simply asking for "the rent." This is presumably because the city is trying to avoid creating a "rental registry" within the meaning of the California Petris Act, which exempts landlords who attempt good faith compliance with rent control laws from fines and penalties.

By intentionally circumventing the Petris Act, San Francisco can seemingly leverage the ordinance's enforcement mechanism—a "license" to impose the annual allowable increase. (It will "suspend" this newly-minted license for non-complying landlords, preventing rent increases until the landlord complies.) Of course, inflation-adjusted rents are a Fifth Amendment minimum, and it's unlikely that San Francisco can avoid the federal Constitution merely by evading the Petris Act, but this confusion may need to be resolved by the courts.