Bassler

I. BACKGROUND

A. The Parties Plaintiffs Margaret Bassler and Chloe Stanfield are former students at Stephens Institute, doing business as The Academy of Art University (Academy). The Academy is a California corporation that operates a for- profit art school. Plaintiffs allege the Academy violated the Rent Ordinance by falsely representing to students housed in Academy-operated housing that their rooms were not subject to the Rent Ordinance and requiring students to “waive their tenants’ rights” in order to live in it. B. The Rent Ordinance The Rent Ordinance was enacted in 1979 to respond to the hardships faced by tenants from excessive rent increases coupled with a shortage of affordable housing. (Rent Ordinance, § 37.1, subd. (b); Golden Gateway Center v. San Francisco Residential Rent Stabilization & Arbitration Bd. (1999) 73 Cal.App.4th 1204, 1211; Parkmerced Co. v. San Francisco Rent Stabilization & Arbitration Bd. (1989) 215 Cal.App.3d 490, 495.) Section 37.10B of the Rent Ordinance, entitled “Tenant Harassment,” prohibits a “landlord” or any “agent, contractor, subcontractor or employee of the landlord” from doing various acts “in bad faith.” (Rent Ordinance, § 37.10B,…