San Francisco Landlord Compliance
Everything you're responsible for as a landlord in San Francisco
Rent control, just-cause eviction, deposits, entry, repairs and recordkeeping, written for people who own or manage a few units, checked against the official sources, and kept current when the rules move.
Jurisdiction
key details
Rent cap · Detail
Tenant Protection Act: max 5% + regional CPI or 10% (lower) per 12 months, max 2 increases/yr; exempts housing <15 yrs old, most single-family homes not owned by corporations/REITs, and rent-controlled units. Sunsets 2030-01-01.
Deposit cap · Detail
Max 1 month's rent (since 2024-07-01, AB 12). Natural-person/LLC owners with ≤2 rental properties totalling ≤4 units may take 2 months, except from service members.
Rent increase notice · Detail
Month-to-month: 30 days' written notice if the increase (with all increases in prior 12 months) is ≤10%; 90 days if >10%. Fixed-term rent can only change per the lease.
City rules · Detail
Costa-Hawkins allows local rent control but exempts units with certificate of occupancy after 1995-02-01 and single-family homes/condos, and requires vacancy decontrol. Ordinances in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Berkeley.
Just cause · Detail
After 12 months' continuous lawful occupancy (24 if adults added), landlord may terminate only for stated at-fault or no-fault just cause; no-fault requires relocation assistance. Same exemptions as §1947.12 (new construction, some single-family).
Return deadline · Detail
Refund and itemized statement no later than 21 calendar days after the tenant vacates; landlord must photograph unit before/after (2025 amendments).
Nonpayment notice · Detail
3-day written notice to pay or quit, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and judicial holidays, before an unlawful detainer may be filed.
What are you trying to do?
Start from the task. Each route gathers the guides, checklists and forms that apply to it in San Francisco.
Essential local guides
If you're new to owning here, these five cover most of what will come up in your first year.
View All GuidesWhen a Tenant Breaks Condo Rules in Edmonton, Is the Landlord Responsible?
An Edmonton owner opens a notice addressed to their tenant. It alleges a bylaw breach for a loud Saturday night, names a possible $500 sanction, and gives three days to respond. Can the corporation do that, will the owner end up paying, and can the lease push the cost back? Each has its own answer.
Guide
Can an Edmonton Condominium Corporation Require Tenant Approval or Registration?
An Edmonton owner signs a lease and the condo manager sends a "tenant registration package": photo ID copies, proof of income, a credit check, and a processing fee, with fob activation to follow board approval. The tenant is already paying rent. The owner has to decide whether any of this is something the corporation can actually require.
Guide
Can an Edmonton Condominium Corporation Restrict Long-Term Rentals?
An Edmonton owner is about to list a one-bedroom and finds a bylaw saying no more than 20 percent of units may be rented. A neighbour says the board will enforce it. The property manager says it can't. Alberta's Condominium Property Act backs the manager for ordinary leases, yet an Edmonton court decision shows where the protection stops.
Guide
When a Tenant Breaks HOA or Condo Rules in Tampa, Is the Landlord Responsible?
A tenant plays music too loud after a pool party, parks a second car in a visitor spot overnight, or lets a dog off-leash past the clubhouse, and the violation letter that shows up a week later has the tenant's name on it, not the owner's. Florida allows that. What it doesn't do is treat a Tampa condo and a Tampa HOA the same way once that letter turns into an actual fine, and the gap between the two has only widened since a 2024 change to the HOA statute.
Guide
Renting in an HOA or Condo in Tampa: What Move-In Rules Can the Association Require?
A tenant's car gets towed from a Tampa HOA street the first week of the lease, and the landlord's first question isn't about the tow fee. It's whether the association even had the authority to order that tow in the first place, and the answer turns on a fact most people never check: whether that particular street is actually private property the association controls, or a public road the county or city owns underneath the HOA's landscaping and signage.
Guide
Recent changes
Only substantive changes, not copy edits.
No recent changes for San Francisco yet.
Checklists, templates and official forms
Turn reading into preparation. Checklists are ours; forms come straight from the agency that issues them.
Checklists
0No checklists yet. Check back later.
Templates
0No templates yet. Check back later.
Official Forms
0No official forms yet. Check back later.
Full San Francisco collection
Filter by what you're doing or by the kind of resource you need.
| Resource | Type | Task | Reviewed |
|---|---|---|---|
Renting in an HOA or Condo in Tampa: What Move-In Rules Can the Association Require? A tenant's car gets towed from a Tampa HOA street the first week of the lease, and the landlord's first question isn't about the tow fee. It's whether the association even had the authority to order that tow in the first place, and the answer turns on a fact most people never check: whether that particular street is actually private property the association controls, or a public road the county or city owns underneath the HOA's landscaping and signage. | Guides | Return a deposit | Oct 6, 2026 |
Renting in an HOA or Condo in Seattle: What Move-In Rules Can the Association Require? A landlord lines up a tenant, signs the lease, and assumes move-in day is just a matter of handing over keys. Then the building's managing agent asks for an elevator reservation the landlord didn't know existed, a move-in deposit that isn't in the lease, and proof the tenant's dog was cleared with the office. None of that is set by state law. It's set building by building, and getting it wrong costs a delayed move-in, not a legal violation. | Guides | Return a deposit | Oct 6, 2026 |
Renting in an HOA or Condo in Miami: What Move-In Rules Can the Association Require? A landlord clears tenant screening, signs the lease, and assumes move-in is just a matter of scheduling the elevator. Then the association's $100 lease-approval fee shows up as a separate line item from the tenant's own security deposit, a service animal request lands on the desk the same week, and a recent shift in federal enforcement priorities has some boards acting like the rules changed when, for a Florida resident, they mostly haven't. Move-in in a Miami condo or HOA runs on several rulebooks at once, and knowing which one actually governs each piece keeps a routine move-in from becoming a dispute. | Guides | Return a deposit | Oct 6, 2026 |
Renting a Condo in Calgary: What Move-In Rules Can the Condo Corporation Require? A Calgary owner signs a lease on a Friday. By Monday the tenant wants to move in on Saturday, the manager says the elevator is booked for two weeks, a move deposit is due, and the tenant's dog is not on any approved list. Three rulebooks are colliding: the building's, the lease's, and the province's. | Guides | Return a deposit | Oct 6, 2026 |
Renting a Strata Unit in Vancouver: What Move-In Rules Can the Strata Corporation Require? A Vancouver owner books the freight elevator for a tenant's Saturday move-in and gets a $200 move-in fee from the strata manager. In BC that fee can go on the tenant's bill, which surprises landlords used to Ontario rules. The catch is that the strata has to be able to defend the fee, and many cannot. | Guides | Return a deposit | Oct 6, 2026 |
Renting in an HOA or Condo in Orlando: What Move-In Rules Can the Association Require? A new tenant signs the lease, pays the deposit, and then gets a second bill from the HOA: a move-in fee the board calls non-negotiable. In an Orlando condo, a state statute caps that fee. In an Orlando HOA built around single-family homes, it usually doesn't, because no comparable cap exists in that statute. Landlords who manage both property types in the same portfolio run into this gap every move-in season, often after the tenant has already called to ask why the number looks different from the building down the street. | Guides | Return a deposit | Oct 6, 2026 |
Renting in an HOA, Condo, or Co-op in New York City: What Move-In Rules Can the Board Require? The lease is signed, the board has approved the tenant, and the movers are booked for Saturday. Then the building rejects the reservation because no one filed a certificate of insurance, and the move gets pushed a full week. Once approval clears in a co-op or condo, a separate layer of building-specific logistics still has to happen before a tenant actually moves in, and it's rarely covered anywhere close to well enough in a standard lease. | Guides | Return a deposit | Oct 6, 2026 |
Renting a Condo in Toronto: What Move-In Rules Can the Condo Corporation Require? A Toronto owner books the elevator for a tenant's move-in day, gets handed a $300 deposit requirement from the condo corporation, and assumes the easiest move is folding that cost into the lease as a line item. That move is exactly the one Ontario's tenant-protection law blocks, and it catches more landlords than almost anything else on a move-in checklist. | Guides | Return a deposit | Oct 6, 2026 |
Renting a Condo in Montréal: What Move-In Rules Can the Condo Syndicate Require? A Montréal owner books the elevator for a tenant's move-in and receives a request from the syndicate for a damage deposit and a staff overtime charge. The first instinct is to add both to the lease. In Quebec that instinct runs into a Civil Code rule on deposits, and the owner ends up paying out of pocket. | Guides | Return a deposit | Oct 6, 2026 |
Renting in an HOA or Condo in Boston: What Move-In Rules Can the Association Require? A landlord collects a security deposit from the tenant, quotes a move-in date, and assumes the hard part is done. Then the building asks for a separate move-in deposit of its own, the moving company can't find legal street parking without a city permit, and the tenant's landlord-side deposit is suddenly governed by one of the strictest deposit statutes in the country while the building's own deposit isn't regulated at all. Two different deposits, two different rulebooks, and a city permit requirement layered on top of both. | Guides | Return a deposit | Oct 6, 2026 |
Page 1 of 2 · 15 resources
From reading to managing
Keep these responsibilities handled, not just understood
Add a San Francisco property and Platuni tracks the deadlines, keeps the records you'll need, and tells you when a rule you rely on changes.
What you read about
Rent increase dates and notice
In Platuni
Obligation tracking with reminders
What you read about
Move-in and move-out photos
In Platuni
Records kept per unit, per tenancy
What you read about
Repair requests and responses
In Platuni
Maintenance log with timestamps
What you read about
Everything a hearing could ask for
In Platuni
One-click audit package