Aggravated by significant rent increases in Oakland during the past few years, the tension between rent-controlled tenants and
landlords has increased. Tenants want
affordable housing and landlords want fair market rental rates. What was fair
in 2010 is probably not a comparable market rate today and Landlords face
additional pressure from mortgages, property taxes, property insurance, garbage
removal, and general property upkeep, costs which may also have escalated.
There is a delicate balance in the Landlord and Tenant equation,
particularly with tenants protected by rent control and marginal rent increases
consistent with the Consumer Price Index or CPI. These opposing tensions sometimes lead to Landlords being tempted to coerce their Tenants to relocate through threatening behavior.
State law affords some protection for Tenants from Landlord harassment. Under Cal. Civ. Code sec. 1940.2, the law
states:
"it is unlawful for any landlord . . . for the purposes
of influencing a tenant to vacate a dwelling to 1) engage in conduct that
violates [Cal. Penal Code § 484] . . .3) use, or threaten to use, force, willful
threats, or menacing conduct constituting a course of conduct that interferes
with the tenant’s quiet enjoyment of the premises in violation of [Cal.
Civ. Code §1927] that would create an apprehension of harm in a
reasonable person]. . .” [Emphasis added.]
In a court proceeding against a Landlord, a Tenant may
receive up to a maximum of $2,000 for each provable violation of this law. Moreover, the law cannot “expand or diminish
the ability of local government to regulate or enforce a prohibition against a
landlord’s harassment of a tenant.”
The City of Oakland adopted a new Tenant ProtectionOrdinance (TPO) effective November 18, 2014.
This ordinance provides broader tenant coverage than either the Oakland Rent
Adjustment Program or the Just Cause for Eviction program but there are still some
dwelling units that are exempt from the TPO.
Notice of the TPO is incorporated into the Rent AdjustmentProgram (RAP) Notice published on 11/18/14. If you are a new tenant in a non-exempt unit who signed
a lease after November 2014, check your lease agreement to ensure that you
receive proper notice.
And, if you are being harassed by your Landlord, keep a log
of each event, the date and time it occurred, what the harassment consisted of,
and if there were any witnesses. You may want to pursue administrative or legal
action consistent with the ordinance to stop the harassment.
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