After months of outages, local press coverage, and a formal notice that went ignored, tenants at 845 California are forming a Tenant Association under San Francisco law. Here's what that means, and how to take part.
A written response from Brick + Timber, addressed to all tenants, that speaks directly to our concerns.
Timely and thorough communication regarding current and future maintenance projects. No more form letters.
Both elevators restored to full working order, with a defined standard going forward:
No outage over 24 hours, and no more than one incident every 30 days.
We don't want to do this. Setting up this website, putting up flyers, running a survey, this is annoying. We're not excited to spend our evenings this way. But it's less exhausting than another year of climbing stairs and being ignored.
Once half of the occupied units in this building join, San Francisco law requires Brick + Timber to meet with us, and negotiate in good faith.
We're dragging them to the table.
From there, we keep pressing the ask above, document every future outage, and use whatever leverage the law gives us, including a Rent Board petition if they go quiet again.
It only works with numbers. They can brush off one email, but's a lot harder to brush off a whole building.
Join right now:
Yes. Forming a Tenant Association is explicitly protected under San Francisco law (Chapter 49A). Landlords are legally barred from interfering.
No. The law treats your right to organize as a protected housing service, just like plumbing and heat. A landlord's failure to respect it can itself become grounds for a complaint.
You can join and stay in the background, or get more involved. It's entirely up to you.
No dues! We'll be entirely volunteer-led.
Once we reach 50% of occupied units, Brick + Timber is legally required to recognize the association, attend meetings, and negotiate with us in good faith. We can also make multi-unit petitions to the Rent Board for rent reductions.
Contact us right away. Any lease provision attempting to waive your organizing rights has no legal effect under the law.
Yes. The association exists to address building-wide issues, not just this one, and broader support makes everyone's position stronger.
It's quick! Tell us your unit number, your interest level, and about your experience with Brick + Timber.
If you'd like to help, we'd really appreciate it! We need help spreading the word to our neighbors. We're also looking for people to help lead the association (especially those with legal backgrounds)!
Date and location to be confirmed once we hear back from enough neighbors. There, we'll vote on leadership and on which actions to take.