no fault Eviction options San Diego CA 92115

[Elizabeth Patton]

Hi All. my husband and I are trying to turn our rental property (which is on our property with its own address) into a AirBB or short term rental. We currently have an awesome long term couple that has lived there for over 5 years but they are paying way below market value. We bought the house and inherited the tenants in 6/2022.  We have a month to month lease and have increased rent each year. We are ready to try AIr BB/ fully furnished short term rental as we believe we can double our income on the rental property. How can we legally evict the awesome tenants in the back? is it insane to try to get rid of awesome paying tenants? what are our options? our Zip code is 92115. We also wanted to know if we are AB 1482 protection act exempt. Getting legal advice is extremely expensive but we are willing to invest if necessary. thank you for your thoughts!

[Dan H.]

That zip code is city of San Diego.  This implies you not only have to deal with AB1482 but also the more strict recently enacted San Diego tenant protection act. 

I am assuming by use of back unit, this is at least 2 units   

Assuming the back unit is not in need of an extensive rehab, the no fault eviction method would be to move close family into the unit. That old not permit STR for 1 year and you would need to check the San Diego regulation about previous tenant having first refusal.

The more feasible way is to buy the tenant out.   This will not be cheap as city of San Diego no fault eviction compensation s 2 months rent, 3 months rent if senior or handicapped.

To me the current San Diego STR market does not justify the expense. We have had STRs in San Diego since 1999 and this has is one of the slowest STR times (not quite as bad as Great Recession). In addition, the STR rents have decreased. Add in the additional effort or cost to use a PM and the profits are not what they were a couple years ago.

Now for your current under market LTR tenants …. Raise their rent the maximum allowed.   That is currently 10% (cpi was above 5%) under AB1482 and I believe the same for San Diego tenant protection act.  It will take time to get the rent to market rent even with maximum rent increases.  Hopefully you understood the laws when you purchased, and depicted the rent control in your underwriting.  

Good luck