City Changes Capital Improvement Rules

SAN FRANCISCO-San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano’s complicated compromise over how much tenants must pay property owners for capital improvements passed easily at yesterday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, earning a 9-1 vote.

A group of property owners had sued the city following the November 2000 passage of Proposition H, which drastically limited the costs tenants pay for such major expenditures. They obtained a favorable ruling last year from Superior Court Judge A. James Robertson, who ruled the proposition unconstitutional.

The decision exposed some tenants, particularly low-income and senior residents, to major rent hikes in buildings where high-ticket improvements had been made. So early this year, supervisors voted for special eviction protections for those would could not afford to fork over large sums all at once.