Opinion ID: 2255742
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the bierman amendment and proposition g

Text: On September 22, 1998, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (Board of Supervisors) amended the Rent Ordinance by implementing San Francisco Ordinance No. 293-98, otherwise known as the Bierman Amendment. The Bierman Amendment amended Rent Ordinance section 37.9(a)(8), among others. This amendment to section 37.9(a)(8) added an entirely new class of landlords who may terminate tenancies for purposes of an owner-move-in. Because of prior amendments to the Rent Ordinance, the percentage of ownership required for landlords to evict under the owner-move-in provision differs depending on the date the owner acquired an interest in the property. Landlords who became owners of record of the rental unit on or before February 21, 1991 require a 10 percent ownership interest. The percentage of ownership interest required for those owners whose interest was recorded after February 21, 1991 is 25 percent. Under the Bierman Amendment, a landlord who becomes an owner of record after July 1, 1997 must have a 50 percent interest in the property in order to terminate a tenancy for an owner-move-in. The mayor signed the amendment on October 2, 1998, and the amendment went into effect on November 1, 1998. The text of Proposition G was submitted to the San Francisco Registrar of Voters (Registrar of Voters) on June 11, 1998 as required by San Francisco Municipal Elections Code section 300, subdivision (c). [2] Proposition G appeared on the November 3, 1998 ballot, was passed by the voters, and became effective on December 18, 1998. Proposition G also proposed certain amendments to Rent Ordinance section 37.9(a)(8). Because the text of the proposed measure was submitted to the Registrar of Voters in June 1998, however, the text as presented to the voters contained the version of the Rent Ordinance as it existed prior to the passage and implementation of the Bierman Amendment. Many of the changes proposed by Proposition G to section 37.9(a)(8) were equivalent to those imposed by the Bierman Amendment, and much of the language is identical. For example, both amendments require an owner to live in the unit for three years and both expand the definition of spouse to include individuals registered as domestic partners in some instances. Equivalent to the language of the Rent Ordinance before the Bierman Amendment, Proposition G provided that landlords are owners of record of at least 25 percent of the property if they became owners after February 21, 1991. But nowhere in the text of Proposition G was there a new 50 percent ownership requirement for landlords who became owners of record after July 1, 1997.