San Francisco Rent Board

Have a question about your lease? Your landlord’s giving you problems? Your tenant has illegal roommates?
Let’s just say, I’m really glad I don’t work for the Rent Board because the usual landlord-​tenant relationships can be downright fractious. And, the hardworking staff at the San Francisco Rent Board is there to run interference and make sure everyone is operating on the right side of the law and treated fairly.
My business with the Rent Board was straight-​forward and not contentious at all: I wanted them to go through all the paperwork in my file that included passthroughs for capital improvements (new building roof, fire alarm, exterior painting), bond measures and of course the annual (or banked) rent increases in order to calculate the correct amount of rent I should be paying.
The problem materialized over several years and five or six property managers ago who worked for the former and now current owner of the building.
These property managers neglected to extrapolate the passthroughs before adding the annual increases and forgot to roll back some passthroughs and bond measures (PG&E, the water board) that had expired, in some cases years ago.
It was a mess and I was paying more rent than I should. I thought it’d be fair (and a lot less of a headache) to let a neutral third party figure it out.
So I filed the paperwork, got a hearing date two months later and my landlord and I had a very pleasant meeting with an arbitrator from the Rent Board who pointed out where mistakes were made, made a ruling on one increase being invalid and took everything back to his office to do the byzantine math that would reveal in about a month’s time what my correct rent should be (it’ll be slightly lower).
If you’re a renter in San Francisco, may all your landlord issues be as benign as mine and if not — landlords too — you can get answers from the excellent, smart people who work for the SF Rent Board.

Had a few questions about a petition my landlord sent in the mail I signed in and was seen right away by Greg he was super nice and answered all my questions and put my mind at ease if you are having any questions I highly recommend coming here !

Wow — what a pleasant surprise! I called and somebody (a real person) answered my call! I asked them a rambling question about security deposits and they gave me a very helpful answer.
And that was it! So easy. I’ll definitely call them again if I have questions about my landlord’s policy.

These people do a great job! They will give you good advice and spend time carefully listening to the situation. I have gotten a lot of relief and good advice by talking to them. In general the rent board seems to hand out fair decisions.

The smuggiest of all smugs picked up the phone when I called.
All I was asking was about the letter they sent me and he kept talking to me in the most sarcastic, unhelpful tone. But what’s more ironic is that I called 10 minutes before and a woman, angelic, I must say helped me out a little but not clearly which is why I called back. I didn’t expect a man like that to put down a woman so harshly. I can’t believe about the things he said. He’s rude and I’m about to run down to their building and ask where this man is (it was that bad).
I even made a Unilocal account just now to say that about them.

Bitchy, smug woman seemed almost glad to tell me that I have no rights as a tenant in a single family unit, and that my landlord can raise the rent however high he/​she would like.

The good: very easy to get in touch with someone. Kudos to tenant rights groups who fought for the rent board’s existence. Kudos to these same groups for winning great tenants rights laws in SF.
The bad: it all depends on who you talk to. Some of the staff are excellent — they are really knowledgeable and are confident enough to say «I don’t know the answer, hold on while I consult someone.» Some of their staff act like they know what they are talking about when the really don’t.
I recently called several times to get clarification on something. Their advocates gave different answers to the same question.
One person I spoke to gave me information that conflicted with the rent board website. When I pointed it out very politely, the person got snotty with me and still refused to try to clarify the discrepancy. The person told me to call the HRC.
So I called the Housing Rights Committee (HRC) and got a coherent answer to my question. I then called the Rent Board back to ask a few follow up questions.
I spoke to Joey. Joey was awesome, very knowledgeable, friendly, and tried hard to be helpful. So if you get Joey on the phone, or someone like him, you’re probably in good hands.
If the Rent Board improved their training and protocol for dealing with questions their staff are not sure about, they would get 5 stars from me.

They ROCK! I’ve called them twice now and have never had a long wait to speak to anyone. I called, and boom! someone on the line. They give great answers to rent questions and are patient enough to explain everything. Ask lots of questions!

I’ve availed myself of the services of this body several times since they came into being, and each time they’ve been professional, courteous and well informed. They offer a wealth of resources and seem to be really fair and unbiased although I’ve heard a few landlords curse under their breath when hearing that they can’t pass through items that have no benefit to their tenants or property. I think they do an excellent job with a really tough subject and mission.

Excellent.
They help people secure adherence to current City Codes and Ordinances by their landlords and apartment managers — who might not be aware of them (?!). Note to self: not everyone is good at their job.
They use current laws to inform and protect innocent people successfully, and in addition they are responsive and compassionate.
Has your landlord ever suddenly given you a ten day notice to move out? In conversation about their inadequate notice to move, does your apartment manager refer to the laws in the City of San Francisco as «legal mumbo-​jumbo»? Are their monetary offers laughable?
We were referred here by the SF Tenant’s Union under a real time crunch and were helped in very rapid fashion because of it. However, it seemed to me that every tenant’s issue (they have counter service for walk-​ins) was handled in a speedy manner and with maximum support to the tenant. In our case that took the form of many returned phone calls, counselor accessibility, answers to questions, referrals to correct building department phone numbers, guidance on eviction process, faxed legal forms, follow up calls about deadlines and so on.
Even though the folks at the City and County of San Francisco Residential Rent Stabilization & Arbitration Board are deserving of their 5 star rating, I hope you never need to use them. But if you do, you will receive excellent professional help and service.