SF’s No Hidden Rent Act: A Landlord’s Guide to Listings, Leases and Fee Income

Disclosure start in version 2

Jan. 1, 2027

Final passage still pending when checked October 26, 2026; not a verified enactment date

5+ units: median sale price per unit

$391,667

SFAR MLS, 2026 YTD through October 25; not restricted to 5–20 units

5+ units: median listed cap rate

5.36%

SFAR MLS, 2026 YTD; down 50 basis points versus the 2025 comparison

Data: Legislative status checked October 26, 2026; amended text October 5, 2026. SFAR MLS sales context: 2026 YTD through October 25; 2025 comparison window unspecified.

For a San Francisco apartment owner, the advertised rent and the amount a tenant must actually pay should tell the same story. The No Hidden Rent proposal would make that comparison explicit. For a buyer, the same discipline belongs in the rent roll: identify each charge, prove its legal basis, and estimate what the building can reliably collect after paying the associated expenses.

1. What SF’s No Hidden Rent Act would require

The reviewed text adds Administrative Code section 37.9G. Its central number is the total estimated monthly cost: base rent plus lawful ongoing charges that a tenant must pay to or on behalf of the landlord as a condition of the tenancy. Disclosure would not legalize a charge prohibited by rent control or another law. [3]

This guide focuses on owners and buyers of 2 to 20 unit buildings. That is our audience, not a statutory building-size exemption or limit. Confirm the final ordinance’s application to the particular rental unit and any applicable exemptions. Do not decide coverage from the number of apartments alone.

Important implementation questions remain for legal review: units without a full year of fee history, how renewals or replacement agreements interact with the January 1 lease date, and which third-party payments are made on behalf of the landlord. Do not fill those gaps by inventing an estimate or assuming every tenant-direct utility bill is a landlord charge.

What happens if a fee was not adequately disclosed?

The revised legislative digest distinguishes two failures. An inadequate listing disclosure would give the resulting tenant an option during the lease term to terminate without penalty. An inadequate lease disclosure would also restrict eviction and late penalties tied to the undisclosed charge. [5]

The text requires written notice to exercise the termination option and prohibits penalties or security-deposit deductions solely because of that early termination. It does not say that all otherwise lawful fees disappear: section 37.9G(d) preserves the payment obligation and recovery of amounts otherwise lawfully agreed to. Disclosure defects and an unlawful charge are different problems. [3]

2. Which fees count: utilities, trash, amenities, parking and storage

RUBS means a ratio utility billing system: an allocation of shared utility costs using a proxy rather than each apartment’s own measured consumption. A familiar label on a billing statement does not establish that its use is permitted for a particular SF tenancy. Ask for the lease provision, underlying invoices, allocation method and any rent-control analysis. [6]

3. Updating listings and lease forms for an all-in price

Build one fee schedule before anyone writes the ad. The owner, manager, leasing agent and billing vendor should work from the same amounts. Identify which fees are required, optional, variable or one-time, and check that each is lawful before describing it as income.

• Retain the prior 12 months of unit-specific variable-charge history and the calculation method for the lease disclosure.
• Place the total where the text requires it; a small-print fee link is not the adjacent, same-size presentation specified in version 2.
• Make platform previews, syndicated listings, the leasing script and the final lease agree.
• Clearly disclose any required application or screening charge before the prospect proceeds; review separate laws governing those charges.
• Keep dated copies of the actual ad, fee schedule, signed agreement and any amendments. Test the published mobile listing as well as the desktop form.

An estimate is not a fixed-price promise unless the agreement makes it one. If the lease uses a lawful variable allocation, explain how a tenant’s charge changes and provide the historical average required by the text. If records are missing, resolve that with counsel and the billing provider rather than presenting a fabricated 12-month figure.

4. Existing tenancies: disclosure does not create new fee income

Version 2’s lease provision is dated January 1, 2027 or later. That is not a blanket instruction to rewrite every existing lease, add charges to old tenancies, or erase older payment obligations. Review the existing contract, applicable rent rules, and any new agreement or amendment before changing what a tenant pays.

SF’s Rent Board treats promised or reasonably expected services, including water, trash and parking, as potential housing services. Removing a service without an appropriate rent adjustment can support a tenant petition. The Board also says parking and storage generally cannot be severed from a tenancy without a just-cause basis. Merely unbundling an included service on a new spreadsheet does not establish collectible revenue. [7, 8]

There can be legitimate additions. The Rent Board says a reasonable charge for a new housing service agreed to by the tenant, such as new parking or storage, may be allowed. That is a different fact pattern from charging separately for a service the tenant already receives under the tenancy. [9]

Do not confuse RUBS with SF’s regulated gas, electricity and steam utility passthrough process. The Rent Board describes that process as recovery of qualifying increases in owner-paid utility costs, with base-year calculations and filing requirements. Its 2026 instructions distinguish petitions from calculation worksheets. A generic utility-fee line is not a substitute for those procedures. [10, 11]

State rules matter too. In a 2025 enforcement settlement, California’s Attorney General addressed landlords using newly imposed utility charges as shadow rent increases for tenants covered by the Tenant Protection Act. The lesson for underwriting is to review the combined burden and applicable rent cap, rather than assume that a separately named fee sits outside it. That settlement is not a ruling on every SF charge. [12]

5. Buying a building: separate base rent from fee income

The aggregated SFAR MLS building-sale data makes the diligence worth doing. The median price per unit for 5+ unit SF buildings was $391,667 in 2026 through October 25, compared with $318,571 in the 2025 comparison. That is about 22.9% higher. Two-unit buildings increased from $850,000 to $1,075,000 per unit, about 26.5%. These are changes in sample medians, not matched-building appreciation. [1]

These figures do not establish that the fee proposal changed pricing or that a particular building is worth 23% more. They mix different transactions, and the 5+ category has no reported upper size limit. Use the data as market context while rebuilding the subject property’s own income and expenses.

• Reconcile scheduled base rent, required fees, optional services, reimbursements, concessions, delinquency and actual collections by unit.
• Read the lease and amendments behind every fee, including whether a service was originally included. Obtain the actual advertisement where available.
• Match utility recoveries with the expense account and allocation records; check that the expense has not also been netted out elsewhere.
• Flag disputes, refund exposure, rent-control concerns, missing disclosures and early-termination risk with counsel.
• Build a base case using documented, supportable income and a downside case that excludes uncertain collections while retaining expenses that will continue.
• Ask the lender how it treats reimbursements and other income. A seller’s listed cap rate is not the lender’s approved NOI.

In that illustration, removing $12,000 of recognized annual fee income while keeping costs unchanged reduces value by about $223,881 at a constant 5.36% cap rate. The fees’ net service contribution was only $2,000, but losing the revenue does not automatically eliminate the utility bill. If costs genuinely fall, model that separately. The sensitivity is a decision tool, not a forecast that these fees will be lost or legally forgiven.

The same review should include turnover costs. A disclosure problem that creates an early-termination option may affect vacancy, leasing expense and the stability of a lender’s projected income. Do not model those costs as certain, but do not value disputed collections as guaranteed cash either.

6. How this compares with state law and other cities

California’s Honest Pricing Law, SB 478, took effect July 1, 2024. The Attorney General describes it as requiring most covered consumer prices to include mandatory charges, rather than simply revealing them at checkout. It is a transparency rule, not general authority to impose a fee. Do not assume its scope or remedies are identical to SF’s proposed residential-lease provisions. [13]

San Diego’s June 30, 2026 agenda included an informational item on a proposed residential fee-transparency and fee-cap ordinance. That dated city notice is evidence of a proposal, not proof that its rules are currently enacted or that its limits apply in SF. [14]

Federal enforcement also provides context: in December 2025, the FTC announced a proposed $24 million Greystar settlement over allegations of misleading advertised rents and mandatory fees, with requirements for total-price and fee disclosures. This was a specific enforcement matter, not an SF ordinance or a universal federal rent-fee schedule. [15]

A practical owner checklist

• Confirm File 260680’s final status and operative text before implementing new forms.
• Audit every recurring charge and identify which tenancies can lawfully bear it.
• Build a single fee schedule, unit histories and a documented variable-charge formula.
• Prepare adjacent, same-size rent and total-price fields for online listings and the first lease page.
• Keep application/screening charges, required monthly charges and genuinely optional choices clear.
• Review existing leases and protected housing services before adding or relabeling charges.
• For a purchase, stress-test unsupported income and ongoing expenses before agreeing on price.