Tenants' Rights in Oakland
Posted by Hamid Grinage on Wednesday, September 19th, 2012 at 11:58am.When considering purchasing real estate that is tenant occupied, it's important to make sure you are aware of the laws and ordinances of the City the property is located in. For example, in Oakland we have rent control as well as Measure EE (otherwise know as The Just Cause Eviction Ordinance). This ordinance makes it more difficult to evict tenants, requiring the landlord to have "Just Cause". Unlike most surrounding cities..you cannot legally evict a tenant for the purpose of selling a property. You have to leave the tenant in place and the new owner may or may not be able to evict them if the owner chooses to reside in one of the units (or reside in the home if it's single family).
There are many people who are interested in purchasing investment property in Oakland who are not aware of our tenant protections. There can be some very serious consequences to purchasing investment real estate without being familiar with all the laws that apply to that real estate. Consider the issue of a protected tenant: Oakland's Measure EE states that if a tenant is 55 years of age or older or disabled, and has resided in the unit for at least 5 years then they have the right of claiming "protected status". If a tenant has a successful claim of protected status, then there may very little if anything you can do to get that tenant out of the property. You might ask "what if the tenant is paying $300 per month and the market rent is $1500?" The answer could possibly be "tough luck". Of course in this situation you would want to consult a real estate attorney who was familiar with tenants rights issues, but suffice it to say that you want to know this before making an offer on the property if at all possible. See the link below for a copy of the Ordinance, and make sure to have your Realtor do as much do diligence in the beginning as possible. One of the worst things that can happen as a real estate agent is to have a client of yours buy property without knowing all the possible issues that may face them.
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