<p>cross-posted in UC Berkeley forum: Hello-I am writing in hopes you could advise us or at least refer us for assistance. My daughter is a student at UC Berkeley and rents a house with five other students on Haste St in Berkeley. They are on a one year lease which is up in June 2009, but I believe only one of the parents signed the lease (not me). One day recently they found a notice on their door that the property will be auctioned in Oct. What are their rights? Can they be evicted if the property is auctioned or foreclosed on? Are there any agencies that are assisting with placing students in housing that are in this situation? How does the fact that Berkeley has rent control enter into the equation? What steps do they need to take now to protect themselves? any advice appreciated…</p>
<p>I have no advice, but just want to say that having paying tennants in a rental property can be very desirable to potential buyers. Perhaps your D & her friends will not be impacted. I really hope it works out for your D.</p>
<p>I guess it depends who the buyer is. Any one else have this experience with their students anywhere out there? I just never liked the idea of her renting off-campus as a sophomore from the start…housing drama on top of everything else can’t be good…</p>
<p>Contact the local tenants association in town. Check the tenants laws of the municipality. Some, such as DC and surely a city with rent control, offer very generous rights to tenants.</p>
<p>Sorry I can not offer any help… This website has a lot of links; some might be useful. Good luck to your D and her roommates.</p>
<p>[Tenant</a> Rights, Laws and Protections: California](<a href=“http://www.hud.gov/local/ca/renting/tenantrights.cfm]Tenant”>http://www.hud.gov/local/ca/renting/tenantrights.cfm)</p>
<p>I’ve been reading articles about this in the news. Here are some pointers from a couple of articles in the SF Chronicle:</p>
<p>Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board
(510) 981-7368</p>
<p>East Bay Community Law Center
(510) 548-4040</p>
<p>Housing Rights, Inc.
[Housing</a> Rights Inc. - Welcome](<a href=“http://www.housingrights.org%5DHousing”>http://www.housingrights.org)</p>
<p>I just went to the web site of the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board, and they have a page about this: [Tenants</a> and Foreclosures - City of Berkeley, CA](<a href=“http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=19622]Tenants”>http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=19622)</p>
<p>It says: “If you are a tenant in a multi-family building, and have been given an eviction notice or notice of a rent increase because the building is entering foreclosure, you need to know that foreclosure or sale of a building is not a lawful reason to evict tenants or raise the rent in the City of Berkeley. You have rights! For questions about rent increases and eviction proceedings, call the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Program at (510) 981-RENT (981-7368).”</p>
<p>Thank you everyone! I have been researching and one person said that because each of the roomates is not on the lease they aren’t protected by the rent control provisions. But I will definitely follow up on all the good referrals, or better yet try to get d to do it: welcome to Life 101…</p>
<p>wecandothis,
Unless each tenant is issued a lease for their portion of the house, I would think the entire house lease, signed by that one parent, is protected by the rent control provisions.</p>
<p>Received this slightly confusing response from the “Rent Board” which says they are not protected by rent control:
"Sale of a property or foreclosure is not good cause for eviction in Berkeley. To evict the new owner would need to have one of the twelve good causes listed in the Berkeley Rent Ordinance. One of the good causes for eviction in Berkeley is if an owner of at least 50% recorded interest wishes to move in to their property. In such cases, the owner must give tenants 60 days written notice for tenancies of a year or more and 30 days written notice for tenancies of less than a year. Because it sounds like all of the tenants are under one lease (and do not rent out rooms on individual leases), this property should not be under rent control. As a result, the landlord would be able to raise the rent without limit at the end of the fixed term lease or with 30 or 60 days notice for month to month tenancies. If all of the students are on individual leases and at least 5 rooms are being rented out, the property would be subject to rent controls. At this point, the best thing to do is to be in contact with us, if you have any further questions, or if the students get any eviction notices. If the property forecloses then the students may not know who to pay the rent to. If this happens, the students should write a letter to the old owner, and to the bank or real-estate agent, informing them that they will be putting the rent money in an escrow account, until a bonofide owner is presented. Please feel free to give me a call if you have further questions.
Sincerely, </p>
<p>Nick Traylor
Lead Rent Board Housing Counselor </p>
<p>(510) 981-4901 "</p>
<p>that sounds to me–and i am no expert, and this is definitely not official advice–like your child and her roommates are allowed to stay for the rest of the lease at the rent they agreed to, unless the new owners have one of the 12 causes for eviction (these generally include if the owner wants to move into the house or do major renovations, or if the tenants fall behind in rent). Then, the new owner can raise the rent as much as he wants after the lease is up. </p>
<p>Hopefully, that will be the end of things–if there are problems figuring out who to pay rent to, or if the new owners harass the tenants or don’t maintain the property, it’s good that you’ve already gotten in touch with a lawyer. What a pain–sorry you have to go through this.</p>
<p>Wow, this nearly happened to a friend’s kid last year in Berkeley. He and his roommates were offered a great deal on rent which they refused because they had already made other plans. Turns out the landlord was scamming them and the house went into foreclosure not long after the 30% rent reduction offer. They would have been stuck. As it is, I do not think they got their deposits back.</p>
<p>During orientation at my youngest ones’s school they spoke about all the services available to students. One was legal services, and they stated that the number one issue they deal with is renter/leasee relations. Check to see if Berkeley offers legal advice to students.</p>
<p>Just checked, they do. <a href=“http://students.berkeley.edu/osl/osl.asp?id=233[/url]”>http://students.berkeley.edu/osl/osl.asp?id=233</a></p>
<p>thanks for the great tip about the legal services…I thought I had heard about that but when I e-mailed the housing dept. at Cal they didn’t even mention it in their response. will follow up…</p>
<p>Leases will typically survive a commercial property bankruptcy. However judges have wide latitude. I would see bout getting a copy of the lease recorded ASAP. That way it will appear on a title report.</p>