Ellis act eviction or buyout in San Francisco

[Zachary P.]

Recently bought a conforming duplex in San Francisco that is tenant occupied with two tenants in each unit.  One unit is protected one is not.  I am currently in negotiations for buyout, it appears non protected are holding firm at 40k total and the protected tenants want 85k total. 

My options are to do an owner move in for the non protected tenants and then try to do a ellis act eviction for the protected tenants.  I have been having hard time trying to run the numbers.  Not sure if it is worth it to just pay them out or proceed with evictions.  If I complete the buyout as current I will wipe out the majority of my savings. 

Would love to hear any advice or experiences anyone has had with evictions in SF.  Thanks

[Liz F.]

I would DEFINITELY NOT pay one and then do Ellis Act. That defeats the purpose. If you're going to do Ellis Act, then you don't have to buy out either (but you will owe them certain moving expenses and time to move). It really depends what you want the units for (to live in, sell, rent out, etc. and what your timeframe is). If you want to go condo, you can't do Ellis Act and may not be able to buy them out - rules have changed a lot over the years and I don't know what they are now. Years ago I used Denise Leadbetter to handle an Ellis Act eviction and she was fantastic.