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David Chiu, City Attorney

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Housing & tenant rights

Herrera secures $2.25 million from scofflaw property owners over illegal Airbnb rentals

October 17, 2025November 5, 2018 by S.F. City Attorney's Press Office
“The court forcefully affirmed San Francisco’s interest in protecting public health, and repeatedly emphasized the likelihood that the sugary soda lobby’s case would fall flat,” City Attorney Dennis Herrera said.
Owners also barred from short-term rentals on any of their properties until May 2025

Categories Housing & tenant rights, News

San Francisco and other local governments back Santa Monica’s short-term rental law

October 17, 2025May 23, 2018 by S.F. City Attorney's Press Office
Santa Monica’s common sense regulations ensure online businesses don’t have an unfair advantage

Categories Housing & tenant rights, News

Herrera secures $620,000 from landlords who housed tenants in unsafe, dungeon-like basement

October 17, 2025May 17, 2018 by S.F. City Attorney's Press Office
Settlements include protections to prevent tenant exploitation after about two dozen tenants were found living in an underground firetrap

Categories Housing & tenant rights, News

Herrera sues owners of illegal hotel in Bernal Heights where party became gunfight

October 17, 2025May 16, 2018 by S.F. City Attorney's Press Office
Owners living in Bali turned the house into illegal short-term rental hotel; party there devolved into a 100-round shootout that terrified the neighborhood

Categories Housing & tenant rights, News

Herrera pursues $5.5 million penalty from scofflaw owners over illegal Airbnb rentals

October 17, 2025May 1, 2018 by S.F. City Attorney's Press Office
City Attorney Dennis Herrera at a City Hall press conference
Brazen property owners defied the law, turned 14 homes into an illicit hotel chain in the midst of San Francisco’s housing crisis

Categories Housing & tenant rights, News

Herrera wins victory for low-income tenants

October 17, 2025April 12, 2018 by S.F. City Attorney's Press Office
Deputy City Attorneys Sara Eisenberg and Brad Russi discuss litigation strategy after winning a key procedural ruling on March 22, 2016.
Appellate court upholds SF law that prevents discrimination against Section 8 renters; Lembi-affiliated landlord, real estate broker must accept federal housing vouchers

Categories Housing & tenant rights, News

Herrera settles with landlords who crammed veterans into illegal and unsafe housing

October 17, 2025February 12, 2018 by S.F. City Attorney's Press Office
Landlords will pay $2 million, make buildings compliant with safety codes and fund housing placement for tenants who would have been displaced

Categories Housing & tenant rights, News

Herrera cracks down on affordable housing fraudster

October 17, 2025August 23, 2017 by S.F. City Attorney's Press Office
“The court forcefully affirmed San Francisco’s interest in protecting public health, and repeatedly emphasized the likelihood that the sugary soda lobby’s case would fall flat,” City Attorney Dennis Herrera said.
City Attorney continues push to stop affordable housing cheats and ensure homes go to those who need them

Categories Housing & tenant rights, News

Herrera pursues restitution and penalties from landlord who kept 20 tenants in firetrap basement

October 17, 2025August 22, 2017 by S.F. City Attorney's Press Office
Senior, 12-year-old girl among those who lived in warren of illegal units in former garage with no windows and one exit

Categories Housing & tenant rights

Judge boosts penalties to $2.7 million in final ruling on ruthless landlord

October 17, 2025May 24, 2017 by S.F. City Attorney's Press Office
With final court decision, Anne Kihagi must immediately comply with a broad injunction that will transfer her property operations to a city-approved manager

Categories Housing & tenant rights, News

Herrera busts two affordable housing cheats

October 17, 2025May 11, 2017 by S.F. City Attorney's Press Office
Groundbreaking enforcement to ensure affordable housing goes to those who need it

Categories Housing & tenant rights, News

Herrera to get evictions voided, win $2.4 million judgment against notorious landlord

October 17, 2025May 3, 2017 by S.F. City Attorney's Press Office
Court rules against abusive landlord on every count in tentative decision; pending evictions to be cancelled, allowing those tenants to remain

Categories Housing & tenant rights, News

Herrera repels legal challenge to short-term rental law, secures settlement with Airbnb and HomeAway

October 17, 2025May 1, 2017 by S.F. City Attorney's Press Office
Deal protects homes, clears way for city enforcement, makes mandatory host registration easier

Categories Housing & tenant rights, News

Herrera secures landmark settlement valued at $60 million from Academy of Art University

October 17, 2025December 19, 2016 by S.F. City Attorney's Press Office
Record code settlement requires academy to provide at least 160 units of affordable housing at no cost to the city, pay millions more to keep at-risk tenants in their homes

Categories Housing & tenant rights, News

Federal judge gives initial backing to SF law that holds online rental platform companies accountable for illegal rentals

October 17, 2025November 8, 2016 by S.F. City Attorney's Press Office
Judge rejects arguments from online rental platforms. Herrera applauds ruling

Categories Housing & tenant rights, News

Herrera sues developer for failing to tell home buyers that Millennium Tower was sinking

October 17, 2025November 3, 2016 by S.F. City Attorney's Press Office
Developer knew a year before condos went on sale that tower was settling faster than planned but did not disclose that, despite a legal requirement to do so

Categories Housing & tenant rights, News

Herrera subpoenas Millennium Tower developer over disclosures to homeowners

October 17, 2025September 20, 2016 by S.F. City Attorney's Press Office
“San Francisco’s Department of Elections and its employees have been doing an exemplary job,” Herrera said. “I’m equally confident that our co-defendants are also meeting or exceeding their legal duties.”
City Attorney invokes investigative authority to determine whether mandatory real estate transfer statements complied with state law, disclosed structural settling

Categories Housing & tenant rights, News

Herrera urges HUD to reconsider

October 17, 2025August 25, 2016 by S.F. City Attorney's Press Office
City Attorney Dennis Herrera has urged HUD Secretary Julián Castro to reverse its disapproval of of San Francisco's Affirmative Fair Housing Marketing Plan.
S.F. City Attorney contends that the federal housing agency was “wrong as a matter of law and public policy” to reject San Francisco’s Affirmative Fair Housing Marketing Plan

Categories Housing & tenant rights, News

Amendments proposed to strengthen City’s short-term rental law against legal challenge

October 17, 2025July 12, 2016 by S.F. City Attorney's Press Office
San Francisco Supervisor David Campos.
Campos and Herrera agree that modest revisions can both address platforms’ objections in federal lawsuit and fulfill the intent of a fair, enforceable ordinance

Categories Housing & tenant rights, News

Herrera wins preliminary injunction in Section 8 housing discrimination case

October 17, 2025May 24, 2016 by S.F. City Attorney's Press Office
Lembi-affiliated landlord, real estate broker must accept federal housing vouchers from low-income renters under local law, Superior Court Judge Quidachay rules

Categories Housing & tenant rights, News
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Seal of the City Attorney of San Francisco

Office of the City Attorney
City Hall, Room 234
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Pl.
San Francisco, CA 94102

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1390 Market St., Fox Plaza, 7th Floor Reception:
M–F, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m

(415) 554-4700 Phone
(415) 554-6770 TTY
cityattorney@sfcityatty.org

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