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Last January, SPOSFI filed a petition for a writ of mandate challenging the validity of new anti-landlord legislation sponsored by Supervisor John Avalos. In an order dated June 5, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Teri L. Jackson denied the petition.

The challenged ordinance gives new rights to alter and expand "nonconforming units"—grandfathered dwelling units that exceed the density allowed under the current Planning Code. However, it also imposes new restrictions on such alterations and expansions if tenants have recently been evicted from those nonconforming units—penalizing landlords who have exercised their no-fault eviction rights under state and local law. The restrictions apply to units that have been the subject of no-fault evictions within the preceding 10 years—five years for owner move-in (OMI) evictions— that took place after December 10, 2013.

SPOSFI's petition asserted several grounds for invalidating the ordinance, including impermissible conflict with the state Ellis Act, insufficient environmental review, and noncompliance with procedural rules for amending the Planning Code. The Court sided with the City and rejected these arguments. In particular, the Court found that the ordinance does not violate the Ellis Act by discriminating against landlords who have evicted tenants to exit the rental business, reasoning that no rights are taken away from those landlords; rather, new rights are only given to landlords who have not evicted their tenants.

This decision appears to conflict with Judge James Robertson II's 2014 ruling in San Francisco Apartment Association et al. v. CCSF (SF Superior Court Case No. CPF-14-513452). In that case, the court found that Supervisor Avalos' anti-unit-merger ordinance (which similarly restricted unit mergers for ten years following certain no-fault evictions) violates the Ellis Act "because it penalizes owners for exercising their [Ellis] rights under state law." SPOSFI plans to appeal this decision.