S.F. Apartment Ass'n v. City & Cnty. of S.F.
S.F. Apartment Ass'n v. City & Cnty. of S.F.
Opinion of the Court
*126*513To reduce the number of no-fault evictions of families with children and educators during the school year, the City and County of San Francisco and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (collectively, the City) barred such evictions. The trial court concluded state law preempted this ordinance and the City appeals. We agree with the City that the ordinance is not preempted, and reverse.
BACKGROUND
In April 2016, the City enacted Ordinance No. 55-16 (the Ordinance). The Ordinance begins with a series of findings: low- and middle-income households displaced by no-fault evictions often cannot afford to remain in the City; "[s]tudies overwhelmingly demonstrate that moving homes in the middle of a school year can be harmful for children"; school teachers and other staff "tend to be especially vulnerable to displacement due to salary limitations"; and "mid-year evictions of school staff disrupt relationships that are important to children, interfere with the learning process, and burden our schools." The Ordinance therefore seeks to "reduc[e] the number of evictions during the school year of families with children, and of teachers and other school staff .... by regulating the timing of certain no-fault evictions."
To this end, the Ordinance amends San Francisco Administrative Code section 37.9, subdivision (j)(1), to provide: "It shall be a defense to an eviction under Sections 37.9(a)(8) [owner move-in], (a)(9) [condominium conversion], (a)(10) [permanent removal of the unit from housing use], (a)(11) [capital improvements], or (a)(12) [substantial rehabilitation] if a child under the age of 18 or any educator resides in the unit, the child or educator is a tenant in the unit or has a custodial or family relationship with a tenant in the unit, the tenant has resided in the unit for 12 months or more, and the effective date of the notice of termination of tenancy falls during the school year."
*514Following the Ordinance's enactment, the San Francisco Apartment Association *127and the Small Property Owners of San Francisco Institute, two nonprofit organizations representing San Francisco property owners (collectively, Property Owners), filed a petition for writ of mandate alleging the Ordinance "is facially invalid because it is preempted by State laws governing landlord-tenant notification procedures and timetables governing the parties' respective rights and obligations, including the timing of the right to terminate tenancies where the landlord has otherwise complied with all state and local substantive requirements necessary to terminate the tenancy." The trial court agreed the Ordinance was preempted and issued a writ of mandate commanding the City not to enforce or apply it.
DISCUSSION
" ' "The issue of preemption of a municipal ordinance by state law presents a question of law, subject to de novo review." ' " ( Coyne v. City and County of San Francisco (2017)
*515" '[W]hen local government regulates in an area over which it traditionally has exercised control ... California courts will presume, absent a clear indication of preemptive intent from the Legislature, that such regulation is not preempted by state statute. [Citation.] The presumption against preemption accords with our more general understanding that "it is not to be presumed that the legislature in the enactment of statutes intends to overthrow long-established principles of law unless such intention is made clearly to appear either by express declaration or by necessary implication." [Citations.]' [Citation.] 'The party claiming that general state law preempts a local ordinance has the burden of demonstrating preemption.' " ( Coyne, supra, 9 Cal.App.5th at p. 1225,
I. The Ordinance is Not Preempted Under Birkenfeld
The Property Owners contend the Ordinance is preempted by the state's unlawful detainer statutes ( Code Civ. Proc., § 1159 et seq. ). The relevant framework is set forth in Birkenfeld v. City of Berkeley (1976)
In contrast, another provision of the local law challenged in Birkenfeld required landlords to obtain a certificate of eviction from the rent control board before commencing unlawful detainer proceedings. ( Birkenfeld, supra, 17 Cal.3d at p. 150,
Thus, under Birkenfeld, "municipalities may by ordinance limit the substantive grounds for eviction by specifying that a landlord may gain possession of a rental unit only on certain limited grounds. [Citations.] But they may not procedurally impair the summary eviction scheme set forth in the unlawful detainer statutes ...." ( Rental Housing Assn. of Northern Alameda County v. City of Oakland (2009)
As this case illustrates, "the distinction between procedure and substantive law can be ' "shadowy and difficult to draw" in practice.' " ( Vaughn v. LJ Internat., Inc. (2009)
Rental Housing, supra, also involved an ordinance not easily defined as substantive or procedural. The ordinance in that case "require[d] that tenants be provided notice and an opportunity to cure any offending conduct before a landlord may resort to eviction. Where an eviction is brought due to a tenant's substantial violation of a material term of the tenancy, disorderly conduct, or refusal to allow the landlord access to the unit, the landlord must have provided the tenant prior written notice to cease the offending behavior. [Citation.] Similarly, a tenant may be evicted for willfully causing substantial damage to the premises only if, after written notice from the landlord, the tenant 'has refused to cease damaging the premises, or has refused to either make satisfactory correction or to pay the reasonable costs of repairing such damage over a reasonable period of time.' [Citation.] The warning notices are to 'be served by the landlord prior to a notice to terminate tenancy,' and they must 'include a provision informing tenant that a failure to cure may result in the initiation of eviction proceedings.' [Citation.] [Provisions in the ordinance] impose certain content requirements on a notice to terminate tenancy and require that a copy of the notice be filed with the [local rent board]." ( Rental Housing, supra, 171 Cal.App.4th at p. 762,
The court rejected an argument that these provisions were procedural for purposes of Birkenfeld 's preemption analysis: "The warning notice requirements [in the ordinance] limit a landlord's right to initiate an eviction due to certain tenant conduct by requiring that the specified conduct continue after the landlord provides the tenant written notice to cease. These notice requirements thus regulate the substantive grounds for eviction, rather than the procedural remedy available to the landlord once grounds for eviction have been established. If the tenant ceases the offending conduct once notified by the landlord, there is no good cause to evict. The requirements for a warning notice are therefore not preempted by the unlawful detainer statutes. As the court stated in Birkenfeld , a city, pursuant to its police power, may place substantive limitations on otherwise available grounds for eviction, but not procedural ones. [Citation.] Unlike the certificate of eviction that was invalidated in Birkenfeld , the warning notice requirements of [the ordinance] do not involve prefiling review by a local administrative agency or impose 'elaborate prerequisites' on the commencement of an unlawful detainer proceeding." ( Rental Housing, supra, 171 Cal.App.4th at pp. 762-763,
*130*518Rental Housing is instructive. The ordinance imposed an indisputably procedural requirement-prior written notice with specified content. Although the court did not discuss the impact on timing in its preemption discussion, this notice requirement imposed an inherent delay on a landlord's unlawful detainer remedy. ( Rental Housing, supra, 171 Cal.App.4th at p. 763,
The Ordinance is significantly less procedural than the ordinance upheld in Rental Housing . Unlike that ordinance, the Ordinance does not impose any procedural requirements: it does not require landlords to provide written notice or to do any other affirmative act. Instead, it simply has a procedural impact , limiting the timing of certain evictions. Moreover, this procedural impact-like the procedural requirement in Rental Housing -is necessary to "regulate the substantive grounds" of the defense it creates. The purpose of the Ordinance is to protect children from the disruptive impact of moving during the school year or losing a relationship with a school employee who moves during the school year. When tenants belong to this protected group (or have a custodial or familial relationship with a resident protected group member), they have a substantive defense to eviction; when they no longer belong to the group-because the regular school year has ended or will have ended by the effective date of the notice of termination-they no longer have a substantive defense. At this time, landlords may avail themselves of the unlawful detainer procedures, which are not altered by the Ordinance. Thus, the Ordinance is a permissible "limitation upon the landlord's property rights under the police power," rather than an impermissible infringement on the landlord's unlawful detainer remedy. ( Birkenfeld, supra, 17 Cal.3d at p. 149,
The Property Owners contend the Ordinance is procedural because, unlike substantive defenses to eviction, it "is wholly unrelated to the merits or substance, and simply restricts when the landlord may recover possession." But this is also the case for other defenses to eviction which the Property Owners concede are "substantive" for preemption purposes. For example, landlords are precluded from certain evictions when the tenant is a member of a protected group, such as being catastrophically ill, or when a comparable unit owned by the landlord is vacant and available. (S.F.
*519Admin. Code, § 37.9, subds. (a)(8)(iv), (i)(1)(B).) The Property Owners argue these defenses are distinguishable because they "limit the circumstances under which landlords may recover possession." However, the Ordinance does precisely the same.
The Property Owners also argue if the Ordinance is upheld as substantive, "nothing would prevent San Francisco from mandating that all for-cause terminations occur on one day a year ...." Although the issue is not before us, an ordinance limiting the timing of all evictions would appear to be preempted by the unlawful detainer statutes. Such an ordinance would not be imposed in order to regulate any substantive grounds for eviction, like the Ordinance. The Ordinance does not impose such a blanket requirement independent of *131any substantive defenses to eviction. Instead, the Ordinance is a substantive defense with an impact on timing.
Accordingly, we conclude the Ordinance is not preempted by the unlawful detainer statutes.
II. The Ordinance is Not Preempted under Tri County and Channing
The Property Owners also rely on two cases, Tri County Apartment Assn. v. City of Mountain View (1987)
Tri County concluded that an ordinance requiring landlords give 60 days' notice of rental increases in month-to-month tenancies was preempted. ( Tri County, supra, 196 Cal.App.3d at pp. 1289, 1298,
Channing concluded that an ordinance requiring landlords intending to withdraw their units from the rental market to provide six months' notice to tenants was preempted by the Ellis Act ( Govt. Code, § 7060 et seq. ). ( Channing, supra, 11 Cal.App.4th at pp. 92, 97,
The Property Owners argue that the Ordinance, like the preempted ordinances in Tri County and Channing, "requir[es] landlords to wait longer to recover possession than allowed by state law," pointing to Civil Code section 1946.1, subdivision (b), which requires 60 days' notice of termination to tenants with month-to-month tenancies. But unlike the ordinances in Tri County and Channing and Civil Code section 1946.1, the Ordinance does not specify an amount of notice required to terminate a tenancy. Instead, as discussed above, it establishes a permissible substantive defense to eviction that (like some other substantive defenses to eviction) impacts when landlords may evict. Roble Vista instructs that where an ordinance regulates in an area within the municipality's police powers and does not *133conflict with a state statute, its incidental impact on the timing of landlord-tenant relations does not alone render it preempted under Tri County and Channing. Such is the case here. We conclude the Ordinance is not preempted under Tri County and Channing. *522DISPOSITION
The judgment is reversed. Appellants shall recover their costs on appeal.
We concur.
NEEDHAM, J.
BRUINIERS, J.
The following definitions were amended or added by the Ordinance: " 'Custodial relationship' means, with respect to a child and a tenant, that the tenant is a legal guardian of the child, or has a court-recognized caregiver authorization affidavit for the child, or has provided full-time custodial care of the child pursuant to an agreement with the child's legal guardian or court-recognized caregiver and has been providing that care for at least one year or half of the child's lifetime, whichever is less. [¶] 'Educator' means any person who works at a school in San Francisco as an employee or independent contractor of the school or of the governing body that has jurisdiction over the school, including, without limitation, all teachers, classroom aides, administrators, administrative staff, counselors, social workers, psychologists, school nurses, speech pathologists, custodians, security guards, cafeteria workers, community relations specialists, child welfare and attendance liaisons, and learning support consultants. [¶] 'Family relationship' means that the person is the parent, grandparent, brother, sister, aunt, or uncle of the child or educator, or the spouse or domestic partner of such relations. [¶] 'School' means any state-licensed child care center, state-licensed family day care, and/or any public, private, or parochial institution that provides educational instruction for students in any or all of the grades from kindergarten through twelfth grade. [¶] 'School year' means the first day of instruction for the Fall Semester through the last day of instruction for the Spring Semester, as posted on the San Francisco Unified School District website for each year." (S.F. Admin. Code, § 37.9, subd. (j)(4).)
Prior to enactment of the Ordinance, San Francisco Administrative Code section 37.9, subdivision (j) provided a defense to owner move-in evictions if a child under 18 resided in the unit and had a custodial or familial relationship with a tenant, the tenant had resided in the unit for 12 or more months, and the effective date of the notice of termination fell during the school year.
Indeed, the procedural-substantive distinction is elusive at best. (See Hambrecht & Quist Venture Partners v. American Medical Internat., Inc. (1995)
The Ordinance applies to all children under 18, whether or not they are currently attending school or day care. The Property Owners have raised no challenge specifically targeting this aspect of the Ordinance, nor have they raised any challenge other than state law preemption.
The Property Owners also argue if the Ordinance is upheld, the City could extend similar protections to other groups, for example, an ordinance preventing the eviction of restaurant workers during the tourist season. As the City conceded at oral argument, any such ordinance would be subject to a constitutional challenge. We note the Ordinance's findings identified specific studies "demonstrat[ing] that moving homes in the middle of the school year can be harmful for children."
The Ordinance does not apply to Ellis Act evictions. (See S.F. Admin. Code, § 37.9, subds. (a)(13), (j).)
The court also rejected a challenge that the eviction defense provision was preempted by the unlawful detainer statutes under Birkenfeld : "[T]he [o]rdinance provides a substantive defense to eviction. The [o]rdinance states that the landlord's failure to comply with its provisions provides the tenant with 'a defense in any legal action' to recover possession or collect rent. [Citation.] Nothing in the [o]rdinance interferes with the procedure for bringing an eviction action under [the unlawful detainer statutes]." (Roble Vista, supra, 97 Cal.App.4th at p. 342,
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.