Three longtime Mission District tenants are taking their landlord to court after a May 3 fire left their Folsom Street building uninhabitable, accusing the owner of shrugging off years of code violations and failing to fix basic life-safety systems. In their complaint, they cast the blaze as just the latest in a series of preventable crises, arguing that chronic neglect stripped them of a safe place to live.
According to Mission Local, the complaint, filed today, names SF Mission Tierra LLC (agent: Sheena L. Chang) and seeks $750,000 in damages. The tenants allege the landlord failed to fix smoke-detector and electrical problems, cleared out their belongings after the fire without prior notice, and tried to coax displaced residents into taking security-deposit payouts that would wipe out their right to return. Mission Local reports that none of the plaintiffs went for those offers.
DBI records show repeated violations
City enforcement files show 2782 Folsom turning up repeatedly in Department of Building Inspection cases and director-hearing agendas over the past several years, according to SF.gov. A building-data profile pulls together DBI complaints and notices of violation for the property, including entries for smoke-alarm failures, sanitation issues, blocked emergency exits and structural deterioration. That rundown is compiled on Augrented.
Tenants, attorneys say repairs can drag on
Tenant attorneys say that even when violations are on the books, getting repairs done and residents back home can be a long slog. Tenant lawyer Rahman Popal told Mission Local that “the city doesn’t regulate after the fire and there is no explicit penalty for landlords who delay repairs,” and another attorney, Joseph Tobener, said he has seen displaced residents wait years, even up to a decade, before returning.
What the law says about the right to return
San Francisco rules protect the right of displaced, rent-controlled tenants to return once a damaged unit is repaired, and they set out a Good Samaritan framework for temporary replacement housing that can preserve a tenant’s controlled rent while they live in a substitute unit. The city’s Good Samaritan Tenancy guidance on SF.gov explains when officials must certify a Good Samaritan tenancy and how the return process works, a point that often looms large in lawsuits and settlement talks…