Staying in their Home: Victory for Tenants

Haniel came to CJJC on September 3, 2013 because a new owner had bought the building and was verbally harassing and threatening him and his family with an eviction from his Mission district apartment.

The landlord refused to accept their September rent and was asking very invasive information from the tenants.

The landlord had also sent out a letter saying that they would be changing the locks to the main door and only tenants who could provide proof of tenancy and all the information he was asking for would be receiving a key to the new lock.

One of our SF Tenant Counselors Leticia, wrote a letter to the landlord informing him of our client’s rights as tenants in the building, but the landlord continued to harass tenants and to offer Haniel money to move out. Later, he began harassing Haniel’s mom Lourdes, saying she was a nuisance and did not have a right to live in the unit; subtenants residing in the unit moved out due to fear and harassment from the landlord.

On September 16, the tenants received a 3-Day Notice for nuisance and CJJC responded back with a letter to the landlord’s representative Stephen Lightfoot and a report of Alleged Wrongful Eviction with the Rent Board.

We responded by stating that we believed that this was retaliation on behalf of the new owner for tenants having exercised their rights to not negotiate a move out.

Haniel later received an Unlawful Detainer and was connected with the Eviction Defense Committee; they went to settlement but did not come to an agreement with the landlord and the case was on its way to jury trial.

Deepa Varma and Nathanael Player of EDC contacted the other tenants in the building and successfully negotiated support for Haniel in his case.

The landlord ended up settling instead of going to trial, especially given that we had 20 witnesses to question so- the tenants were allowed to stay in their unit with some behavioral rules being set up for a one-year span, and the landlord also had to acknowledge the tenancy of subtenants in the building, including those that had moved in after he had bought the building.  Victory!