Campbell plans to bring amendments forward to a committee meeting next month for consideration, said Venus Molina, the councilmember\u2019s chief of staff. But Campbell nor her staff have answered questions about the loophole or how they plan to fix it.<\/p>\n
When city rules lag, reporting catches up. Help us keep digging locally.Give $10<\/a><\/p>\n Since inewsource revealed the gap in city law, hundreds of San Diegans have been evicted from their homes and the city has no way of knowing whether any of those evictions led to short-term rental licenses.<\/p>\n The loophole deals with a specific type of action called a no-fault eviction \u2014 it happens when a property owner wants to end a lease for reasons unrelated to a tenant\u2019s behavior. State law allows property owners to exit the rental housing business for a number of specific reasons, including a substantial remodel or to allow for the owner or their family to move in.<\/p>\n But to terminate a lease for these reasons, property owners need to jump through a series of hoops. For example, if an owner intends to renovate the home, they would have to include the eviction notice with an itemized statement that details the scope of work and copies of the necessary permits. If they want a family member to move in, they would have to move within 90 days and live there as their primary residence for at least 12 consecutive months.<\/p>\n One San Diegan who spoke to inewsource earlier this year received a no-fault eviction<\/a> so the new owners could move into the apartment. But less than 90 days after the tenant\u2019s move-out date, the owner obtained a short-term rental license from the city of San Diego.<\/p>\n Gil Vera, a director with the Legal Aid Society of San Diego, expressed skepticism on how the city can stop this from happening.<\/p>\n \u201cMy concern is that I don\u2019t know how they plan to fix it if they\u2019re not tracking evictions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Eviction records are protected by state law, and the only information publicly available is the number of court filings.<\/p>\n City officials were working on a plan to track evictions in 2023 \u2014 it was known as the eviction notice registry<\/a>. The idea was if they could collect data on eviction notices sent to renters, it could help guide policy and allocate limited resources. It could also help staff identify whether a unit was made vacant through a no-fault eviction. But the idea stalled not long after it began<\/a> and it\u2019s unclear whether officials will bring it back.<\/p>\n Vera said without that information, it\u2019s unrealistic to expect city officials to know in advance that a short-term rental license they are about to grant is for a unit that just illegally evicted its tenants.<\/p>\n
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