San Francisco Rent Control & Eviction Rules

All residential dwelling units in the City and County, with the land, appurtenant buildings and housing services supplied with them — except the exclusions in § 37.2(r) and units first certified for occupancy after June 13, 1979 (Ord. 276-79), which are exempt from the rent-increase limits

The eviction controls of § 37.9 apply "to all landlords and tenants of rental units as defined in Section 37.2(r)", so they reach some units the rent cap does not.

Source: S.F. Admin. Code § 37.2(r); § 37.3(g)(1) · verified 2026-09-26

Hotel, motel and rooming-house rooms occupied under 32 continuous days; nonprofit cooperatives controlled by a resident majority; hospitals, convents, monasteries and licensed extended- or elder-care facilities; school and college dormitories; units whose rents another government unit regulates (with carve-backs restoring coverage for specified HUD, Section 8, HOPWA, LIHTC, bond-financed and City-subsidized units); post-June-13-1979 construction and Rent-Board-certified substantially rehabilitated units

Source: S.F. Admin. Code § 37.2(r)(1)–(4) · verified 2026-09-26

60 percent of the increase in the CPI (All Urban Consumers, San Francisco–Oakland) for the preceding 12 months, published by the Rent Board each March 1, applied to the tenant's base rent — available to a landlord who has reported the unit to the Rent Board under § 37.15

The text states no floor; in a low-inflation year the allowable increase is simply 60 percent of whatever the CPI change was.

Source: S.F. Admin. Code § 37.3(a)(1) · verified 2026-09-26

7%

"In no event, however, shall the allowable annual increase be greater than 7%."

Source: S.F. Admin. Code § 37.3(a)(1) · verified 2026-09-26

Once a year, on the tenant's rent-increase anniversary date; the CPI figure itself is published once annually on March 1

Source: S.F. Admin. Code § 37.3(a)(1)–(2) · verified 2026-09-26

Yes

"A landlord who refrains from imposing an annual rent increase or any portion thereof may accumulate said increase and, subject to Section 37.15, impose that amount on the tenant's subsequent rent increase anniversary dates."

Source: S.F. Admin. Code § 37.3(a)(2) · verified 2026-09-26

Capital-improvement, rehabilitation, energy-conservation and renewable-energy passthroughs certified under §§ 37.7 and 37.8B (seismic-related work capped at 10 percent of base rent in any 12 months, excess bankable); utility passthroughs (§ 37.2(q)); water passthroughs of up to 50 percent of DPW excess-use penalties and 50 percent of specified water-bond rate increases (§ 37.3(a)(5)); operating-and-maintenance increases by petition under § 37.8, capped at a total 7 percent of base rent in any five years for properties of six or more units

Source: S.F. Admin. Code § 37.3(a)(3)–(5); § 37.8(b)(1)(A) · verified 2026-09-26

Costa-Hawkins decontrol as restated in § 37.3(d): an owner may set the initial and later rents for a separately alienable unit after a genuine vacancy, except unsold condominiums still held by the subdivider, a tenancy the owner ended by a no-fault or change-of-terms notice (the next tenancy stays controlled), units with uncorrected serious code violations predating the vacancy, and the new-construction categories in § 37.2(r)(4)(D)

Source: S.F. Admin. Code § 37.3(d)(1)(A)–(D) · verified 2026-09-26

Yes — a landlord "shall not endeavor to recover possession of a rental unit unless" one of the 17 grounds in § 37.9(a) applies: nonpayment, uncured covenant breach, nuisance or substantial damage, illegal use, refusal to sign a comparable renewal, refusal of lawful access, unapproved subtenant, owner or relative move-in (§ 37.9(a)(8), with §§ 37.9A–37.9B protections), condominium-conversion sale, demolition or permanent removal, temporary removal for capital improvements, substantial rehabilitation, Ellis Act withdrawal (§ 37.9(a)(13)), lead-remediation displacement, development-agreement demolition, expiry of Good Samaritan status, and Planning Code § 317 redevelopment

§ 37.9 applies since August 24, 1980 to every rental unit under § 37.2(r) — broader than the rent-cap coverage.

Source: S.F. Admin. Code § 37.9(a)(1)–(17) · verified 2026-09-26

Ellis Act withdrawal (§ 37.9(a)(13)): for notices filed on or after September 1, 2022, $10,000 per Eligible Tenant, capped at $30,000 per unit where there are more than three, plus $6,700 (in two $3,350 installments) for a tenant who is 62 or older or disabled — all adjusted annually by the Rent Board. Relocation for the other no-fault grounds (owner move-in, demolition, temporary removal, lead remediation) is governed by § 37.9C and Admin. Code Chapter 72

§ 37.9C — the general no-fault relocation schedule — is not in the Code Library (its page 404s and the chapter TOC does not list it), so its dollar figures are NOT FOUND here rather than absent from the ordinance; the same gap covers the Tenant Buyout Agreement chapter (37E), which is why the buyout row below shows the state baseline.

Source: S.F. Admin. Code § 37.9A(e)(1)–(2) (carried on the § 37.9 page) · verified 2026-09-26

No per-unit registration statement; instead every owner of a covered residential unit pays an annual Rent Stabilization and Arbitration Fee set each year by the Controller (the Rent Board's budget divided by fee-paying units, so no fixed figure is in the text), of which up to 50 percent may be passed through to the tenant (§ 37A.6). Separately, § 37.15 requires owners to report unit information to the Rent Board as the condition of taking the annual CPI increase

Source: S.F. Admin. Code Chapter 37A, §§ 37A.1–37A.4, 37A.6; § 37.15 · verified 2026-09-26

Not regulated by state law

Several cities regulate buyout agreements — disclosure, a rescission window, filing — on the units their ordinances cover.

Source: AB 1482 — Tenant Protection Act of 2019 · verified 2026-09-26

The Residential Rent Stabilization and Arbitration Board (the Rent Board), created by Ord. 276-79, with an Executive Director and Administrative Law Judges (§ 37.4). A landlord seeking an increase above the § 37.3(a) limits must petition for arbitration under § 37.8, where the burden of proof is on the landlord

Source: S.F. Admin. Code § 37.2(b); § 37.8 · verified 2026-09-26