Mak v. City of Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board, 240 Cal. App. 4th 60 (2015)

Citation: Mak v. City of Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board, 240 Cal. App. 4th 60 (2015)
Parent Document: Mak v. City of Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board, 240 Cal. App. 4th 60 (2015)
Jurisdiction: California (state)
Effective Date: 2015-09-02
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2837910/mak-v-city-of-berkeley-rent-sta... ↗

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We here affirm the rejection by the City of Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board
(Rent Board) and by the superior court of a landlord’s transparent attempt to circumvent
the provisions of local rent control provisions. Appellants Jason and Karen Mak own a
residential rental property with four apartments in Berkeley. In February 2012 they
served on Elizabeth Burns, a tenant in one of those apartments for 28 years, a 60-day
eviction notice, asserting that Jason Mak intended to occupy the apartment. In April
2012, the Maks and Burns entered a written agreement under which Burns agreed to
vacate the apartment, stating that Burns was not doing so pursuant to the 60-day notice,
and that such notice “shall upon occupant vacating, be conclusively deemed withdrawn.”
Burns vacated the apartment at the end of June and months later the Maks rented the unit
to new tenants, Alexander and Andrea Ziem, at more than double the rent that Burns had
been paying. In response to the Ziems’s application to the Rent Board to lower the
permissible rent to that paid by Burns, the Maks contended that Burns had voluntarily
vacated the apartment, so that under the terms of the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act,

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