Month-to-Month Lease Laws in San Francisco

Month-to-month leases are the most common type of rental agreement, mainly because of their flexibility. New legislation that went into effect in California in 2020 makes month-to-month agreements even more appealing to tenants: rent increases are limited and landlords can no longer end the lease whenever they want. These rules are even more tenant-friendly in San Francisco, especially when it comes to terminating a month-to-month tenancy.

Establishing a month-to-month lease in San Francisco

Month-to-month tenancies are established in California in one of three ways:

1. Written lease:The landlord and tenant signed a written lease that explicitly created a month-to-month tenancy.
2. Expired fixed-term lease:The landlord and tenant signed a fixed-term lease that expired—but the tenant kept paying rent and the landlord accepted those payments, thus establishing a month-to-month agreement.
3. Verbal agreement:There is no written lease, but the tenant pays rent monthly.

Ending a month-to-month lease in Texas

California state law protects month-to-month renters who've lived in their unit for longer than a year from being kicked out for no reason.

San Francisco, however, offers those same protections to all month-to-month tenants regardless of how long they've already lived in the unit. Under the city’s rent ordinance laws, landlords can only kick them out for "just cause." Certain bad behavior on the tenant’s part can be considered just cause, including:¹

• Not paying rent or regularly paying rent late
• Substantially breaching the lease agreement
• Creating a nuisance or waste
• Using the rental for illegal purposes
• Refusing to renew the lease with similar terms
• Not allowing landlord access to the unit
• A subtenant not approved by the landlord is the only tenant in the unit

Before evicting a tenant for any of these reasons, a landlord must first provide written notice of the problem and give the tenant a chance to fix it.

All of that said, a month-to-month tenant doesn’t necessarily have to do something wrong to have their lease terminated. Under San Francisco’s ordinance, landlords can also end a month-to-month agreement because they:

• Want to move into the unit
• Want to sell the unit to convert it into a condo
• Need to remove lead paint in the unit
• Plan to demolish the building

These are sometimes referred to as "no-fault" evictions because the tenant didn't do anything wrong. Tenants kicked out for these reasons often have the right to relocation payments.

Changing a month-to-month lease in California

Landlords in California always have to give some amount of notice before they make a change to a month-to-month lease. The required days' notice can either be:

1. The notice period that is stated in a written month-to-month lease
2. 30 days' notice

The state laws are more specific when it comes to rent increases for month-to-month tenancies in California. They need to provide 90 days' notice for increases of more than 10% and 30 days' notice for increases of less than 10%.

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[1] San Francisco Rent Board Ord. §37.9