San Francisco has rent control – rents can only go up by a certain percentage per year in buildings constructed before 1979 – but there are some costs that landlords can pass on to tenants.
Tenants, in turn, may apply for exemptions from some of the rent increases created by pass-throughs by showing that the cost creates a financial hardship. The rent increases and hardship claims are evaluated by the city’s Rent Board.
Recent legislation has changed which kinds of pass-throughs landlords can apply for and what tenants can be exempted from paying — property tax increases, for example, can no longer be passed on to tenants, and renters can now petition to be exempted from increases due to the costs of new general obligation bonds.
At the request of Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer, the Budget and Legislative Analyst’s office has completed a report analyzing pass-throughs and hardship petitions. Fred Brousseau, director of policy analysis at the office, said the pass-throughs individually may not seem like they amount to much, but they can add up to substantial rent increases, up to 13% in some of the cases analyzed.
“Digging into the files as we did really gives the picture of what the impact can be of something that may not sound like very much. Oh, it’s another 2% or another 3% to the rent. But the hardship applications include all the details about the tenant’s income and assets and so forth. And it really becomes quite clear that that really can make a big difference, and adding another 2% or 3% to rent for someone who is on a very limited income can have some big impacts.” — Fred Brousseau
