A city law introduced by Supervisor David Campos and adopted last year by the Board of Supervisors to shed light on the practice of tenant buyouts might be having an unfortunate and unintended consequence. The Chronicle now argues that the law, whose aim was transparency, has made those buyouts less appealing to landlords, with many of them opting to evict their tenants instead.

Since this March, when compared with the previous three years' average, the number of eviction notices filed per month has gone up 32 percent, from 151 per month to more than 200 per month. At the same time, owner move-in evictions have increased 131 percent, from around 24 to around 55 per month.

But what does that have to do with buyouts? In part, it's about condo conversions.

Campos' ordinance requiring property owners to disclose cash settlements with tenants went into effect in March. When buyout negotiations begin, landlords must register with the Rent Board. In addition to that pesky red tape, the law comes with a 10-year ban on condo conversions. Where a buyout has taken place, you can't convert units to condos, curtailing a profitable practice. In the past, with an under-the-table buyout, no such restrictions would apply.

Of course, buildings where evictions have occurred are also subject to the same ban. But now, says tenants attorney Joe Tobener “There is no incentive to buy someone out versus filing an eviction notice,” In fact, it's now easier and cheaper to, say, evict a tenant for breach of contract or nuisance (the two most common types of evictions aside from owner move-ins).

Landlord attorney Andrew Zacks opposed the buyout legislation and agrees with Tobener. “I can tell you that the net effect of the buyout legislation has caused there to be more evictions,” he claimed. “Before, when a landlord bought a tenant out, one of the things they were willing to pay for was confidentiality and privacy. A lot of my clients would prefer to negotiate, to sit down and work something out. But because of the legislation they just go ahead and file for eviction.”

Once and perhaps future District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin, however, disagrees. “Whether they get bought out or evicted is kind of apples and apples.” he said it’s better to know what is happening in the world of buyouts, even if it means more landlords going for eviction... I think it’s worth knowing who is getting bamboozled."

Groups representing property owners led by the San Francisco Apartment Association disagree. They've filed a lawsuit in Superior Court in hopes of overturning the buyout legislation, claiming that tenants and landlords free speech and right to privacy are being violated.

Supervisor Scott Wiener, who originally supported to the law, has come around to basically that stance. “As I dug deeper, I became concerned that the legislation would not help tenants and instead would simply lead to an increase in evictions, with tenants losing their housing anyway, having an eviction on their record, and receiving less compensation,” he said.

Previously: Landlords Now Forced To Publicly Disclose Tenant Buyouts, And We Have Numbers