How Do I Determine if My Building is Covered by AB 1482 or Rent Control?

The "techies" have gotten together with ACCE and other tenant's rights organizations to form tenantprotections.org. They have created a slick tool to help tenants learn if they are covered by the Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (otherwise known as AB 1482) or rent control.

See: https://tenantprotections.org/

By answering several questions, the tool will either answer your question about coverage under AB 1482 OR whether you may be covered by rent control and point you to tenants' rights organizations to help provide further guidance.

As it pertains to both AB 1482 and rent control, the year the building that you live in was built is one of the establishing factors. To discover when the building was built, you can search for the buidling address and companies like Zillow or Trulia may have that information. Or, contact the building records division in your city to establish when the building was issued a "certificate of occupancy." This certificate is issued by building inspection and certifies that the building is ready for occupany. If a certificate of occupancy was not issued, ask if the building received a "final permit" and when.

Tenantprotections.org is a collaborative project between various California non-profits, and volunteers including: Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), Code for San Francisco / Code For America, and TechEquity Collaborative.

Learn All About It - Oakland's New Rent Registry Program

Atttend the Oakland Rent Registration Workshop to better understand these new requirements for your landlord. Once the registry is established, it would be prudent for tenants to check the information submitted by your landlord to ensure that 1) your unit is registered, and 2) that the informaiton is correct.

The first workshop is on Oct. 19, 2022 via Zoom and begins at 5:30 p.m.

See: https://www.oaklandca.gov/resources/rent-registration-in-oakland-information-and-faqs

Just Who Owns My Rental Property? The San Francisco Chronicle Introduces a New Tool to Help Answer that Question.

Discovering who -- or what enttity - owns your rental property can be challenging. The San Francisco Chronicle developed this helpful tool to assist you to discover the property owner. 

This map reveals who owns every property in the S.F. Bay Area

Data is current through the 2020-2021 fiscal year, thus, if there was a property sale since then, the information may not be current.

Oakland's Rent Board Holds a Tenant's Rights Workshop on Sept. 14, 2022 - Come one, come all!

 

WHY CAN'T WE AFFORD TO LIVE IN OUR CITIES?

A documentary film by an award-winning Swedish filmmaker, Fredrik Gertten explores why renters across the globe are being pushed out of rental housing through corporate investment and unaffordable rent in a film called "PUSH." For a special viewing, ACCE and the Oakland Tenants Union are sponsoring a showing at the Grand Lake Theater on Sept. 20, 2022 at 6:30 p.m.

Oakland Voters have an Opportunity to Expand Just Cause Protections - Vote in the November 2022 Election for Measure V!

Attention all Oakland Voters:

Measure V will be on the Ballot this November 2022 proposing to expand Oakland's Just Cause Eviction Ordinance as follows:

"Shall the Measure amending the Just Cause for Eviction Ordinance to: 

(1) prohibit no-fault evictions of children and educators during the school year; 

(2) extend eviction protections to tenants in recreational vehicles (RVs), tiny homes on wheels, and newly constructed units (except during the first 10 years after issuance of the certificate of occupancy); 

(3) remove failure to sign a new lease as grounds for eviction; and 

(4) make other clarifying amendments, be adopted?"

For more details, check the City Council agenda and minutes for "This Year" and search for "Just Cause." 

Care4Community which is associated with Councilperson Carroll Fife, which be holding a virtual assembly about Measure V and two other ballot measures related to housing issues.

The Theme of the Day: Tenant Power

Yesterday, an assembly meeting occurred in Hayward which was sponsored by the Regional Tenant Organization (RTO), an affiliation of thirty-one tenant associations spanning the Bay area. Tenant organizers from SonomaCounty, San Francisco, San Jose, East Palo Alto, Alameda, Oakland, and many other communities attended. A representative from the Eden Community Land Trust weighed in; the ECLT is loosely affiliated with the Oakland Community Land Trust and is seeking to acquire and develop affordable tenant housing in the unincorporated areas of Alameda County and the City of Hayward. In turn, the ECLT, OCLT, and Bay Area Community Land Trust are affiliated with the California Community Land Trust Network.

The overall theme of the assembly centered around how tenants in specific rental communities have organized to counter significant rent increases and improve living conditions, successful approaches, and how to keep the tenant momentum going and growing. The pandemic, job loss and financial hardship seemed to help fuel the growth of these tenant organizations as well as state-wide organizations such as ACCE and Tenants Together.

There's no question that the tenant movement is on a roll and making strides locally and state wide.