San Diego considers placing burden on tenants to help enforce their own protections

San Diego officials are planning to rely on renters to help enforce their own tenant protections.

Last week, a San Diego City Council committee met to discuss proposed amendments to the city’s short-term rental ordinance. As inewsource revealed earlier this year, one of the problems with the law is a glaring loophole that allows property owners to obtain a short-term rental license even after carrying out an illegal eviction.

The solution? If approved by the full City Council, officials would have the authority to revoke or deny a license if a property owner was found in violation of the city’s Tenant Protection Ordinance.

But city officials have no plans to check if an owner violated the law prior to issuing a license. The proposed change relies on tenants to understand their rights have been violated and to reach out to the City Attorney’s Office to file a complaint.

That could leave many violations undetected.

Tenants often leave before an eviction is ever filed in court, or even before they get the official notice to vacate. Sometimes all it takes is a text message or a conversation, such as, “My mom is moving into your unit,” with a date to vacate. 

A violation isn’t discovered until the tenant follows up — sometimes finding their old apartment listed on short-term rental platforms, such as Airbnb. 

And that’s the problem, said Gil Vera, director of the Housing Justice Collaborative with the Legal Aid Society of San Diego. Tenants facing displacement often lack the time or money to investigate whether their landlord broke the law.

“Most people, when they get that eviction notice, they’re going to be worried about ‘Where are we going to live? I need to find a new place; I need to start putting applications in,’” Vera said. “I just don’t know this is going to be enforced, other than maybe the 1 in 100 squeaky wheel tenant who actually follows through and does the investigation.”

San Diego Councilmember Jennifer Campbell, who represents Ocean Beach, Point Loma and Mission Beach, continues to tout the regulation of short-term vacation rentals as a signature achievement, leading the charge to pass the ordinance that took effect in 2023. The ordinance has been hailed as one of the best examples of vacation rental regulations in the country. Campbell, whose office has proposed the latest amendments, has not answered questions about the loophole.

An inewsource investigation revealed the loophole earlier this year. It deals with a specific type of action called a no-fault eviction — when a property owner wants to end a lease for reasons unrelated to a tenant’s behavior. State law allows owners to exit the rental housing business for a number of specific reasons, including a substantial remodel or to allow the owner or their family to move in.

But to terminate a lease for these reasons, owners need to jump through a series of hoops. For example, if an owner intends to renovate the home, they would have to include the eviction notice with an itemized statement that details the scope of work and copies of the necessary permits. If they want a family member to move in, the relative would have to move within 90 days and live there as their primary residence for at least 12 consecutive months.

Instead, inewsource has uncovered examples of investors buying multi-family properties, clearing out the long-term tenants with buyouts or no-fault evictions, and posting the units on short-term platforms.

The amendments have faced months of delays under the direction of Venus Molina, a top official in Campbell’s office whose own unsuccessful City Council campaign received more than $22,000 from Airbnb, short-term rental operators and other interests affected by the proposed changes.

During the meeting last week, Molina revealed several amendments that she said aims to clarify eligibility, verify legal use and improve accountability. When asked directly about the no-fault eviction loophole, Molina said city staff “is not going to be proactively looking.”

“One of the things that we do have now is that if we do find you to be guilty of violating (the city’s tenant protections), then we have the right to revoke or to not provide you with a license,” Molina said, “which is something we didn’t have before.”

Councilmember Raul Campillo pressed Molina and a member of the City Attorney’s Office to explain how this would work. 

A tenant who felt their home was being flipped into a vacation rental should contact the city’s Housing Protection and Code Compliance Unit, said Chief Deputy City Attorney Corrine Neuffer. Members of the City Attorney’s Office would then evaluate whether there is a violation and, if one exists, coordinate with city staff to either revoke or decline to issue a license, she said.

Neuffer added that the city’s tenant protection law “requires landlords to notify the Housing Commission when tenants are evicted … once a submission portal is established. I’m not aware of the status of that particular portal.”

That particular portal is known as the eviction notice registry. City officials were working on a plan to track evictions in 2023. The idea was if they could collect data on eviction notices sent to renters, it could help guide policy and allocate limited resources. 

It could also help staff identify whether a unit was made vacant through a no-fault eviction, and cross reference that with a short-term rental application. But the idea stalled not long after it began and it’s unclear whether officials will bring it back.

It’s unclear when the proposed amendments presented last week will go before the full City Council. Campbell terms out of office in early December.