Oakland's Tenant Protection Ordinance lacks criminal penalties

Oakland's Tenant Protection Ordinance lacks criminal penalties

By Lynda Carson - November 11, 2014

Oakland - When all of the City Council members voted in favor of passing the Tenant Protection Ordinance (TPO) on "November 5" to curb harassment of tenants by their landlords, something did not smell right. Through the years most council members have generally been very hostile when it came to passing strong tenant right's protections, policies or measures to curb landlord abuse in Oakland. Especially any policies or ordinances that have any real teeth in them to protect residential renters from the landlords who try to bully and harass them out of their housing.

In Oakland the TPO now allows tenants to sue landlords for harassment if they are residing in substandard buildings with code violations, and if the landlords fail to make needed repairs or proper maintenance.

However, it also appears that times have not changed much and compared to other cities with tenant harassment policies or ordinances, Oakland's latest ordinance to curb landlord harassment seems very weak compared to other cities.

In comparison to other cities in California some cities have criminal misdemeanor penalties for landlords who violate the tenant harassment ordinances including Berkeley, San Francisco and Santa Monica. Oakland fails to have any criminal misdemeanor penalties for the landlords that violate Oakland's Tenant Protection Ordinance (TPO).

Indeed, Oakland fails to have any criminal penalties at all in the new ordinance (TPO) to go after repeat offenders that may be convicted in a court of law for harassing tenants, over and over again.

As recent as November 5, with much fan fare the City Council passed the TPO in an effort to protect some but not all of Oakland's renters from landlord harassment. Tenants can seek civil remedies in court through the TPO, and tenants are required to be covered by the rent adjustment ordinance if they want to sue their landlord for harassment as defined by the TPO. There are thousands of other residential rental units in Oakland that are not covered by the TPO and are considered to be exempt from the ordinance.

The TPO offers a protected tenant 16 different reasons that they may sue a landlord in court for violating the ordinance. The victims of landlord harassment can seek civil remedies that may cost the landlord a minimum of $1,000 or more (see ordinance for full details of civil remedies) if the tenant or their attorney can prove in court without a reasonable doubt, that the landlord is guilty of violating the TPO.

However, unlike Berkeley, San Francisco, and Santa Monica that also have tenant harassment laws on their books allowing criminal misdemeanor penalties that may be used to send landlords to jail for up to 6 months for violating tenant harassment laws, Oakland's landlords are free to harass the tenants as much as they want without facing any criminal misdemeanor penalties. The TPO may actually protect landlords from criminal misdemeanor charges if the tenant tries to sue the landlord for harassment through the TPO.

As an example, landlords in San Francisco convicted of harassing tenants may face criminal misdemeanor charges and may be fined $1,000, or face six months in County Jail. Or they may be fined $1,000 in addition to receiving a sentence of six months in jail, plus other penalties.

In Santa Monica landlords also face stiff punishment for harassing tenants. Each separate violation of their ordinance may be either a criminal misdemeanor with up to six months in jail plus a $1,000 fine, or a civil violation subject to injunction, $1,000 fine, attorney' fees and possible punitive damages.

Oakland's TPO is similar but does not have a criminal misdemeanor penalty for landlords convicted of tenant harassment. Contact an attorney for legal advice.

Compared to New York City (NYC), on September 23, 2014 it was reported that a bill passed by the City Council would double the maximum penalty for tenant harassment from $5,000 to $10,000 per unit. The fine for tenant harassment is small in NYC and not much of a deterrent when considering that landlords who stand to make thousands more a month on deregulated apartments in rent stabilized buildings are willing to take the risk.

Tenants in NYC have been allowed to sue landlords for harassment since 2008 in housing court. During the past six years 3,200 tenants have sued their landlords, and 2,195 cases were discontinued, dismissed or withdrawn. Additionally, with more than 600 cases being settled, there were only 44 cases left with judgments entered against the landlords, according to reports.


Oakland Rents Are Rising 5 Times Faster Than In San Francisco


As tenants are fleeing San Francisco and moving to Oakland due to the extremely high rents caused by the tech industry, the rents are skyrocketing in Oakland and have increased by 12% in 2013, and as much as 15% in 2014 according to the East Bay Express. According to additional reports, rents in Oakland are presently rising five times faster than they are in San Francisco.

Due to an imbalance of power between tenants and landlords in Oakland, tenants have been complaining to different organizations and agencies that landlords have been trying to bully and harass them out of their housing. Some landlords are trying to displace many of Oakland's existing renters and are using every trick in the book to push them out of their housing including threats of physical harm, invasion of privacy, depriving tenants of their right to the quiet and peaceful enjoyment of their housing, and threats to call immigration on many families.

The Rent Adjustment Program office has testified that they are receiving around 100 to 200 calls a month from tenants claiming landlord harassment. Data from the East Bay Community Law Center and Centre Legal de la Raza indicate that some of their clients reside in substandard housing and experience landlord harassment. Additionally, during fiscal year 2014 around 40% out of 480 tenants who receive legal services at Centre de la Raza faced landlord harassment according to reports.

Oakland activists, Causa Justa/Just Cause and the Oakland Tenants Union have recently teamed up together to convince city officials that something has to be done to stop the displacement of existing renters from the flow of new higher income renters moving into the city, astronomical high rents and massive gentrification schemes being planned by the city. The West Oakland Specific Plan (WOSP), other specific plans meant to gentrify portions of Oakland and the Coliseum City area plans will have a major negative displacement effect on Oakland's low-income renters once the gentrification schemes move forward.

Unfortunately, as an ordinance against tenant harassment the TPO has been compromised and has become weakened from its original intent by the time the TPO was finally passed by the City Council a second time.

Another major compromise occurred when an amendment removed "administrative remedies" from the TPO which would have given tenants a place to go to lodge complaints against BAD landlords trying to bully and harass them from their housing. Without "administrative remedies" tenants will have to sue their landlords to enforce the law because they will not have a city administrative process in place to be able to review the complaints, so the landlords may be fined for violating the TPO.

For those protected by the TPO they have an opportunity in court to fight back against landlords that may try to bully and harass them out of their housing. If the tenants are lucky enough to find an attorney to represent them and sue the landlord for harassment they can roll the dice and see what happens in court in the effort to seek civil remedies against the BAD landlord.

If the tenant wins a case of harassment in court against the landlord, the landlord may have to pay a price and may even have to pay the attorney fees of the tenant. But if the tenant loses their case in court against the landlord for harassment, the tenant may have to pay the attorney fees for the landlord in addition to what they may owe to their own attorney.

Low-income renters do not have that kind of money sitting around to take such a risk. Additionally, since most landlords have insurance against lawsuits and often prevail against tenants in court due to an unjust legal system in favor of landlords, the imbalance of power still exists because the TPO fails to level out the playing field between landlords and tenants in the legal system.

The TPO has additional shortfalls and fails to offer any protection to tenants residing in transitional housing. Tenants in so-called affordable housing developments owned by wealthy nonprofit housing developers including Bridge Housing and Mercy Housing which are billion dollar corporations, are not protected by the TPO because nonprofit housing developers and their affiliates are exempt from the TPO in Oakland.

Oakland may have as many as 7,000 to 10,000 so-called affordable housing units or more that are exempt from the TPO that are filled with thousands of tenants that will have no protection from nonprofit housing developers that may try to bully and harass them from their housing.

The TPO also fails to offer any help to tenants residing in owner occupied three unit buildings.

Additionally, newly built rental housing will be exempt from the TPO for a minimum of 15 years after tenants move into the newly built rental housing in Oakland. This flawed compromise in the TPO is an open invitation to developers that will want to be exempt from the TPO when building new rental units in Oakland in future years. The owners will be free to bully and harass tenants out of their buildings during the 15 year period the buildings will be exempt from the TPO, if that is their choice.


16 Types Of Harassment Prohibited By The Tenant Protection Ordinance (TPO)


A. No Owner or such Owner's agent, contractor, subcontractor, or employee,
shall do any of the following, in bad faith.

1. Interrupt, terminate, or fail to provide housing services required by
contract or by State, County or municipal housing, health or safety laws, or
threaten to do so;

2. Fail to perform repairs and maintenance required by contract or by
State, County or municipal housing, health or safety laws, or threaten to do so;

3. Fail to exercise due diligence in completing repairs and maintenance
once undertaken or fail to follow appropriate industry repair, containment or
remediation protocols designed to minimize exposure to noise, dust, lead paint,
mold, asbestos, or other building materials with potentially harmful health
impacts;

4. Abuse the Owner's right of access into a rental housing unit as that
right is provided by law;

5. Remove from the Rental Unit personal property, furnishings, or any
other items without the prior written consent of the Tenant, except when done
pursuant to the procedure set forth in Civil Code section 1980, et seq.
(disposition of Tenant's property after termination of tenancy).

6. Influence or attempt to influence a Tenant to vacate a Rental Unit
through fraud, intimidation or coercion, which shall include threatening to report a
Tenant to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, though that prohibition
shall not be construed as preventing communication with U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement regarding an alleged violation;

7. Offer payments to a Tenant to vacate more than once in six (6)
months, after the Tenant has notified the Owner in writing the Tenant does not
desire to receive further offers of payments to vacate;

8. Attempt to coerce a Tenant to vacate with offer(s) of payments to
vacate which are accompanied with threats or intimidation. This shall not include
settlement offers made in good faith and not accompanied with threats or
intimidation in pending eviction actions;

9. Threaten the tenant, by word or gesture, with physical harm;

10. Substantially and directly interfere with a Tenant's right to quiet use
and enjoyment of a rental housing unit as that right is defined by California law;

11. Refuse to accept or acknowledge receipt of a Tenant's lawful rent
payment, except as such refusal may be permitted by state law after a notice to
quit has been served on the Tenant and the time period for performance
pursuant to the notice has expired;

12. Refuse to cash a rent check for over 30 days unless a written receipt
for payment has been provided to the Tenant, except as such refusal may be
permitted by state law after a notice to quit has been served on the Tenant and
the time period for performance pursuant to the notice has expired;

13. Interfere with a Tenant's right to privacy;

14. Request information that violates a Tenant's right to privacy,
including but not limited to residence or citizenship status or social security
number, except as required by law or, in the case of a social security number, for
the purpose of obtaining information for the qualifications for a tenancy, or not
release such information except as required or authorized by law;

15. Other repeated acts or omissions of such significance as to
substantially interfere with or disturb the comfort, repose, peace or quiet of any
person lawfully entitled to occupancy of such dwelling unit and that cause, are
likely to cause, or are intended to cause any person lawfully entitled to
occupancy of a dwelling unit to vacate such dwelling unit or to surrender or waive
any rights in relation to such occupancy;

16. Removing a housing service for the purpose of causing the Tenant to
vacate the Rental Unit. For example, taking away a parking space knowing that
a Tenant cannot find alternative parking and must move.


For more details about the TPO and who is protected by the Tenant Protection Ordinance (TPO) that allows some renters in Oakland to sue their landlords for harassment, feel free to contact Causa Justa/Just Cause in Oakland:

Tenants in Oakland facing eviction from their housing can also seek legal help at the following:

The Eviction Defense Center:
East Bay Community Law Center:
Centre Legal de la Raza:
Alameda County Legal Aid:

Also available are various pro-tenant attorneys listed in the phone book or online.

Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com

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