Action/Alerts

The Board of Supervisors, the Mayor, and the Planning Commission have been tinkering with the legalization of unwarranted units. The latest salvo seems to be headed in the direction of requiring property owners to legalize units regardless of cost. The first step is new legislation that gives tenants in illegal units early warning of the demolition of an illegal unit so that they can fight the removal at the Planning Commission.

At the behest of Debra Walker, tenant representative on the Building Inspection Commission, Supervisor Wiener introduced and passed legislation that requires property owners to give tenants of illegal units notice of any building permit application that would result in their displacement. Prior to this legislation, only tenants in legal units had the right to such notice.

This new requirement means that if you have an unwarranted (illegal) unit and wish to remove it in order to comply with the building code, you must first give written notice to your tenants. They then have the right to fight your application, availing themselves of free legal advice from the Eviction Defense Collaborative. Apparently, Ms. Walker believes that giving tenants early notice will allow them to force their landlords to legalize these units. She would like to see both stronger code enforcement and more incentives and options for legalizing rental units that are not up to code.

Property owners between a rock and a hard place
The new legislation and the city's drive to legalize unwarranted units presents a dilemma for small property owners. This is so because many units are illegal due to issues that cannot be remedied—lack of front and rear egress, low ceilings, zoning restrictions, setbacks, etc. At what cost does the city require modification of a unit in order to make it code-compliant? At what cost point does the city acknowlege that it's simply not practical to legalize a unit, and allow it to be removed. What rights do the tenants then have?

In 2014, the Board of Supervisors passed legislation allowing legalization of secondary units built without permits. Last year, Mayor Lee issued a directive seeking to maximize the preservation of such units. In June 2015, the Board of Supervisors, Building Inspection Commission, and Planning Department adopted legislation waiving the permit fee related to any application for such legalization. That's the carrot. However, permit fees for structural or excavation work, or any work that's not directly related to legalization, are not waived. The stick is the policy that the Planning Department has already implemented: no over-the-counter approvals for removal of illegal units. Each application must now go through a mandatory discretionary review.

There are estimated to be 30,000 to 50,000 illegal units in San Francisco. The city is committed to maintaining and preserving them. Only time will tell how much of a financial burden it is willing to put on property owners, and how far it will go in loosening the codes that make these units illegal.