Fine, big deal. During my initial lease period the building changed ownership and management companies. Do they get a credit for what the previous owners paid? This whole thing seems to violate the spirit and intent of every rental protection law that San Francisco has on its books. I know the laws are there to protect landlords in addition to tenants, and I understand the reasoning for taking into account debt service in these passthroughs, but can it really apply to a new owner?
I know I can protest the increase at the hearing which is TBD. I also have not heard anything from my neighbors. The petition applies to 13 of the 17 units in the building the rest of which I assume are under a new lease or vacant. Should I talk to the tenants of the other units facing an increase? Will a protest be more effective at a hearing with more of the tenants present? In the real world, in Bakersfield or any other jurisdiction without rent control, a landlord would not have to justify your rent increase at all.
Free market capitalists will point out that all businesses can choose to raise their prices anytime they want. Land is ultimately a finite commodity. Housing costs are always pegged to the price of land. As demand increases, the value of the land and the housing situated upon it increases. Imagine a world in the future in which population has increased so dramatically that human beings live on every habitable plot of land on earth.
Of course the land will be owned by a very small percentage of landlords. Those landlords will literally have a captive market. Nobody will be able to move to Oakland where the rents are cheaper. Obviously that scenario is a long way off, but cities like San Francisco are the canaries in the coal mine. When a natural resource like land is treated like a commodity, the future is ominous for tenants first and then the landlords upon whom tenants vent their anger.
First, the comparison of expenses from old landlord to new is allowable, notwithstanding that all of the increases in expenses were calculated and considered by the buyers and factored into final sales price of the building.
