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and it cannot be disputed that the challenged portion of Rule 6.15C regulates the grounds
for eviction. (Danekas, supra, 95 Cal.App.4th at pp. 645–646.) We also conclude that in
providing that master tenants may not be evicted for overcharging subtenants, the Rent
Board “reasonably interpreted the legislative mandate.” (Id. at p. 644.) If a master tenant
overcharges the subtenant, then the subtenant, not the landlord, is harmed. The Rent
Board could reasonably leave the remedy for that harm in the hands of the subtenant,
through a petition for a rent adjustment. It may well have had a sound policy reason for
doing so. Once the last of the original occupants of a rental unit vacates the premises, the
landlord may, subject to certain limitations, raise the rent charged to subsequent
occupants to market rates without the constraint of rent control. (Civ. Code, § 1954.53,
subds. (a) & (d)(2); Rent Ord., § 37.3, subd. (d)(2)(A); Rule 6.14; T & A Drolapas &
Sons, LP v. San Francisco Residential Rent Stabilization and Arbitration Bd. (2015)
238 Cal.App.4th 646, 651–653; Mosser Companies v. San Francisco Rent Stabilization
and Arbitration Bd. (2015) 233 Cal.App.4th 505, 511; Danekas, supra, 95 Cal.App.4th at
p. 645.) Granting the power to evict a master tenant who overcharges subtenants would
give a landlord an incentive to evict the master tenant in order to raise the rent to the
market rate, thus harming the very subtenants the rule was enacted to protect. The Rent
Board could reasonably conclude the limitation on evictions would serve the purposes of
the Rent Ordinance by safeguarding tenants from excessive rent increases, and we will
not disturb its judgment. (Rent Ord., § 37.1, subd. (b)(6).)
We are not persuaded otherwise by Britton’s contention that subtenants who reside
in the same rental unit as the master tenant will not complain of being overcharged
because the master tenant can evict them without just cause. (Rule 6.15C, subd. (1).)
Having created the master tenant’s obligation not to overcharge subtenants, the Rent
Board could reasonably decide to leave the remedy for a violation in the hands of the
injured subtenant. Nor do we agree with Britton that the regulation creates an
unauthorized exception to the rule that a landlord may evict a tenant for violating a lawful