All Forum Posts by: Errol NA

Here are some thoughts about coping with these issues in rent controlled/regulated areas. In those places, the landlord is generally entitled to raise the rent once a year (in SF that is the case, and the increase is an amount set by the Rent Board) but some landlords do not impose those increases.

In SF, when allowable increases are not imposed they are “banked” so they can be imposed at a later date. If your tenants demand compensation, pay them what they demand and impose the current and all banked increases. Do that every year and you can use the additional revenue to deal with these kinds of situations when they come up.

Also, if you live in a regulated area, you may want to look up your right to pass through costs when you have to do a major repair. In SF, these are called capital improvement passthroughs and I believe in some instances 100% of costs can be passed through by a rent increase. It must be approved by the Rent Board but that is not difficult to do if you have appropriate documentation of the costs.