Just cause required for eviction
San Francisco Rent Ordinance § 37.9(a)City law
A landlord must have a just-cause reason that is the dominant motive to evict a tenant. The listed reasons include nonpayment or habitual late payment, substantial breach, nuisance, illegal use, refusal of lawful access, specified owner or family occupancy, sale after an approved condominium conversion, demolition or rehabilitation, Ellis Act withdrawal, lead remediation, and specified development or temporary-tenancy circumstances. Mere expiration of a rental agreement or a change in ownership is not just cause.
Answers the question “When can they end my tenancy?”
The source
SOURCE: https://sf.gov/information/overview-just-cause-evictions RETRIEVED: 2026-10-01 22:37 UTC Overview of Just Cause Evictions | SF.gov Skip to main content Info Page Overview of Just Cause Evictions In order to evict a tenant from a rental unit covered by the Rent Ordinance, a landlord must have a "just cause" reason that is the dominant motive for pursuing the eviction. Rent Board In order to evict a tenant from a rental unit covered by the Rent Ordinance, a landlord must have a "just cause" reason that is the dominant motive for pursuing the eviction. Note that the mere expiration of a rental agreement or a change in ownership does not constitute "just cause" for eviction. The 17…
- Official law
- Open the official source
- Document
- D079, retrieved Oct 1, 2026
- Dates
- In force
- Status on Oct 1, 2026
- In force
What it depends on
- Covers
- The summary does not specify building-fact criteria for which units are covered. It states that some tenancies exempt from rent-increase limits remain subject to eviction protections.
- What you can do next
- Read the law at its official source
Audit trail
The model reads the law; code decides who it covers. The line between them stays visible.
Extracted by the model
What the model read from the source text, checked by code (the quote must appear word for word).
- Category
- Eviction protection
- Requirement
- A landlord must have a just-cause reason that is the dominant motive to evict a tenant. The listed reasons include nonpayment or habitual late payment, substantial breach, nuisance, illegal use, refusal of lawful access, specified owner or family occupancy, sale after an approved condominium conversion, demolition or rehabilitation, Ellis Act withdrawal, lead remediation, and specified development or temporary-tenancy circumstances. Mere expiration of a rental agreement or a change in ownership is not just cause.
- Key value
- none
- Effect
- protection_or_duty
- Quote found in source
- yes
- Confidence
- 90%
reasoning boundary
Decided by code
Deterministic: same rules, facts and date give the same answer.
- Jurisdiction: listed only for addresses whose state or legal city is CA-SAN-FRANCISCO.
- Dates: no effective date in the text; treated as in force.
- Coverage: no building condition the data can test; conditions in words stay with the text.
As of Oct 1, 2026Engine run
Sources retrieved Oct 1, 2026.
Which buildings it reaches
All 250 sample addresses in California on Oct 1, 2026.
- 80 applies
- 170 not covered
Every dot is the rule engine’s result for that address. The larger dots are the example addresses listed below. 2 addresses have no coordinates and are counted but not drawn.
Decided by code for the example addresses
On Oct 1, 2026. Rules that don’t apply are left out.
- 3515 Fillmore St, San Francisco: Applies. Citywide San Francisco rule in force (San Francisco Rent Ordinance § 37.9(a)); no building condition in it excludes this address.
- 145 Taylor St, San Francisco: Applies. Citywide San Francisco rule in force (San Francisco Rent Ordinance § 37.9(a)); no building condition in it excludes this address.
- 140 Portola Dr, San Francisco: Applies. Citywide San Francisco rule in force (San Francisco Rent Ordinance § 37.9(a)); no building condition in it excludes this address.