Jun Wai Tom v. City & County of San Francisco

*677 Opinion

The trial court ruled that a local San Francisco ordinance, seeking to discourage persons from acquiring private residential property using tenants in common (TIC) agreements, violated the constitutional rights of privacy and equal protection guaranteed by the California Constitution, and was preempted by the state Ellis Act, Government Code, section 7060 et seq. We affirm the judgment.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

There is no dispute concerning the relevant facts in this appeal, but certain background information is necessary for an understanding of the legal issues presented. In general, the co-owners of real property who are TIC each have an equal right to occupy their property. (See Bakanauskas v. Urdan (1988) 206 Cal.App.3d 621, 628-630 [ 253 Cal.Rptr. 764 ] (Bakanauskas.) Unless there is an agreement between the TIC to the contrary, no TIC could exclude any others from any part of the property. (Ibid.)

Due to the high cost of acquiring residential real property in certain California cities in the past decade, many home buyers acquire multi-unit buildings as TIC, and then the TIC make agreements among themselves, to give each owner an exclusive right of…