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By paying rent and living in an SRO room for 30 continuous days, you become a tenant and gain all rights under California law. It takes 32 days for you to gain rights under the local rent ordinance. You should ask for and keep receipts when you pay your rent. These receipts (as well as copies of bills) will help you prove your tenancy.

Make sure that your room is certified as a residential room and NOT a tourist one (certification should be posted at the front desk). If you鈥檙e moving in, make sure you鈥檙e assigned to a residential room. Because you must pay your rent for the entire 30-day period, if you receive income twice a month you may want to negotiate a payment plan with the hotel manager so that you pay rent monthly or bi-monthly.

it鈥檚 important to be a tenant

By becoming a tenant you gain many rights you don鈥檛 have as a non-tenant resident. For instance, under the city鈥檚 rent control ordinance (if you鈥檙e covered by it, that is, if your building was built before 79), you are protected against unlimited rent increases. You also have just-cause eviction protection (landlord can only evict you for one of 14 just causes). Also your rent can only be raised a small percent each year (see 鈥淩ent Increases鈥 brochure for more info).

musical rooms

A landlord/manager may try to prevent you from becoming a tenant in your hotel room by making you move every 28 days or by making you 鈥渕ove out鈥 for a night and then re-registering you. This game of 鈥渕usical rooms鈥 is ILLEGAL under California law (). If your landlord/manager is playing musical rooms, you should act quickly:

鈥擟ite the law. Let her know that you will seek legal help and that she could be subject to a penalty of $500 or more.

aContact us or one of the organizations listed under 鈥淩esources鈥 for advice.

鈥擲ue the landlord/manager in for damages. It costs $30-75 to file a case. You do not need a lawyer. You present your case and your landlord presents his. Your rent receipts, showing the dates you paid rent, and other documents addressed to you at the unit, will be helpful in proving a violation of CCC 1940.1 in court. For more info, contact: , 575 Polk, room 001, 415-551-5880.

鈥擳he City Attorney鈥檚 Office is currently documenting cases of 鈥渕usical rooms.鈥 Contact the Code Enforcement Task Force at its hotline number: (415) 554-3977.

landlord cannot

Once you鈥檙e a tenant in a residential hotel room, the landlord CANNOT:

Lock you out (). She cannot change the lock on your room or forcibly prevent you from re-entering your room without taking all the legal steps to evict you (see 鈥淓viction鈥 brochure). If you think your landlord might lock you out, it鈥檚 best to keep documents, or copies of your documents, on your person or at another location to prove your tenancy. If you are locked out, call the police at 553-0123. Tell them that the landlord has locked you out of your room illegally. Ask them to arrest him for a violation of and to open your room. Show the police your rent receipts and other documents to prove you鈥檙e a tenant. You can also sue the landlord/manager in Small Claims Court for damages. Under California Civil Code Section 789.3, the landlord/manager must pay $250 per incident of illegal lockout, $100 a day for each day she is in violation of the law, plus your actual damages.

Remove your property (). The landlord/ manager cannot remove your property, unless she has gone through legal eviction proceedings. As in the above situation, you can call the police and file a suit in Small Claims Court.

Shut off your electricity, water, heat, phone, etc. (CA Civil Code 789.3, link above).

Evict you without serving you with a legal notice (3, 30 or 60 days) and then an unlawful detainer court summons (Code of Civil Procedure 1161). You must respond to an unlawful detainer within five days. The will help you (see their number under 鈥淩esources鈥). If the landlord wants you to move out for failure to pay rent, she must send you a three-day notice, which has to give you the option to pay the rent owed so that you can stay in your room. (For more info, see our 鈥淓victions鈥 brochure).

Enter your room without proper notice. , a landlord may enter your room only with a 24-hour notice. Even then he has to have one of four reasons: To do requested repairs; in case of an emergency; in case of a court order; or if you鈥檝e vacated or abandoned your room.

Harass you. As with many of these other violations of your rights, contact us for help with this.

guests/ visitors

SRO residents often ask what their rights are regarding visitors or overnight guests. Under SF law, residential hotels cannot charge visitor鈥檚 fees to guests. They also cannot stop you from having eight overnight guests per month. If you have adult roommates, each of them can also have eight overnight guests (but only one overnight per household per night). As聽 for daytime visitors (9am-9pm), you can have as many as you want, but not more than two at a time. For more info, give us a call or stop in during our counseling hours.

annoying neighbors

Sometimes you can鈥檛 get along with your neighbor or a roommate. If this is the case, we recommend calling , a free meditation service that helps people get along, 920-3820 or the Rent Board鈥檚 mediation service at 252-4602. As a policy, we do not counsel people on how to evict other people, even if you are a tenant want-ing to get rid of a roommate.

other rights you have

HEAT: requires that landlords provide heat between 5-11am and 3-10pm when the temperature is below 68. (See brochure on heat issues.)

REPAIRS: You do not have to live with rats, bug infestations, broken heater, sink, leaks, mold, etc. Your landlord is obligated to take care of these things. Contact us for more help.

NOTICES OF RENT INCREASES: If your landlord wants to raise the rent, she must give you a written 30-day notice (60 days if the increase is 10% of more). A conversation in the hall or over the phone does not suffice. (See brochure on 鈥渞ent increases.鈥)

FREEDOM OF EXPOSURE TO LEAD: Paint with lead was used in all buildings built before 1978. Peeling paint in these buildings could be dangerous, especially for children. You should notify the landlord and if s/he doesn鈥檛 do anything about it, then contact us.

resources

Central City SRO Collaborative, 415-775-7110

Chinatown SRO Collaborative, 415-984-1489

Mission SRO Collaborative, 415-282-6209 x12 or x16

Causa Justa/ Just Cause, corner 19th & Mission, 2nd floor, SF 94103, 415-487-9203. (Se habla espa帽ol)

Eviction Defense Collaborative, 995 Market/6th, 12th floor, 94103, 415-947-0797

Tenderloin Housing Clinic, 126 Hyde,聽415-771-9850

SF Tenant鈥檚 Union, 558 Capp, 415-282-5525

Unconditional 聽Legal聽Services Clinic, Glide Memorial Church, 330 Ellis, Mondays and Thursdays, 2-5pm, run by Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Bay Area Legal Aid.

Dept. of Building Inspections, 5415-58-6220

Dept. of Public Health, 415-252-3800