Manifestantes frente a la oficina de un propietario, exigen frenar desalojos en la Misión en abril de 2014. A group rallies outside of a property owners’ office to protest evictions in the Mission in April 2014. Photo Shane Menez

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed legislation on Oct. 21 establishing ground rules for a controversial practice known as buyouts, in which landlords offer tenants money to vacate their units. Proposed by District 9 Supervisor David Campos, the buyout law is a step toward protecting San Francisco’s more vulnerable tenants.

“None of the limitations that apply to a formal eviction currently apply to a buyout,” said Campos. “This law will regulate buyouts so that there will be a level playing field.”

According to Campos, landlords use buyouts as a “loophole” to circumvent new, tougher Ellis Act regulations. Because current city law does not address buyouts, landlords can tell tenants that a buyout is the only option to avoid an Ellis Act eviction when, in fact, buyout arrangements are completely voluntary.

“Oftentimes, they don’t know that the offers are voluntary,” said María Zamudio, whose organization Causa Justa serves many Spanish-speaking clients facing buyouts. “So they come into our office and think that they’re being served an eviction notice.”

Causa Justa and other organizations see clients who claim landlords are using intimidation and harassment to push buyouts. Without knowing their rights and fearing they have no options, tenants are agreeing to move for as little as $1,000, a small sum in a real estate landscape where rents have recently skyrocketed.

Campos’ law regulates buyout negotiations and helps assure that tenants have all the information necessary to make a decision.

The law, which was passed by a 7-4 vote at Tuesday’s meeting, will require landlords to provide tenants with a written statement of their rights, which include granting a 45-day grace period to opt out of a buyout agreement as well as a list of organizations that tenants may consult during negotiations. This statement of rights will be elaborated in a formal “Buyout Agreement” that landlords must sign and file at the San Francisco Rent Board.

“If the law is followed appropriately, you will get a lot of information that you would otherwise not have,” Campos said. “You’re going to know what your full rights are, so you’re going to know what your leverage is.”

The law also gives legal protection to tenants entering into buyout negotiations. For the first time, tenants will be able to take civil action against landlords who violate the terms of the buyout agreement.

“This is new territory,” said Campos, whose district includes the Mission, one of the neighborhoods hardest hit by the city’s changing demographics. “Anything dealing with buyouts would be subject to attorney’s fees, and attorney’s fees do add up. This law makes it so that the landlord has financial incentive to not break the rules.”

In addition to these protections, Campos’ law will clarify the number of tenants facing buyouts. Organizations like Causa Justa and the Housing Rights Coalition have reported that they see new buyout clients every day and estimate that the number of buyouts may reach into the hundreds. But so far, exactly how many people are taking buyouts in San Francisco remains unknown.

Remembering Ted Gullicksen

Ted Gullicksen, a native of Taunton, Massachusetts who, in fighting for tenants’ rights, became the executive director of the San Francisco’s Tenants Union, died in his sleep on Oct. 13 in his Bayview apartment. He was 61.

Buyout displacement was one of the last major problems that Gullicksen tackled. The buyout legislation, Campos noted, was Gullicksen’s “brainchild.”

“For the last couple of decades you could not talk about tenants in San Francisco without taking into account what Ted Gullicksen was: the single most important figure in the tenants’ rights movement for a long time,” the supervisor said.

“We know that a lot of people who take buyouts don’t ever report it and never get counseling here,” said Andrew Szeto, a volunteer counselor at the San Francisco Tenants Union. “The Campos legislation will institutionalize the collection of data for where buyouts are happening.”

By the law, the SF Rent Board will organize filed buyout agreements in an online database and, in doing so, will present a more accurate scope of buyouts. From there, lawmakers and tenants’ rights groups will have a better idea of how to correct displacement problems caused by buyouts.

“By requiring that landlords file paperwork with the Rent Board, we’ll be collecting the hard data,” said Campos. “We’re not going to know what the appropriate next response is unless we know the extent of the displacement.”