Thursday, July 24, 2014

E-filing works in SF Superior Court

Since I wrote about the e-filing coming to San Francisco last October, many changes were proposed, and some were even made, and the system started working on a wide variety of cases on July 14. Yesterday, I tried it for myself and today my first ever state-court filing went live! You may want to give it a try, the water looks safe!

[UPDATE 11-6-14] E-filing becomes mandatory across the board in civil cases in this court, with very few exceptions, effective December 8, 2014. Three more vendors were approved on November 5 in addition to the previously sole vendor, File & Serve Xpress.

Friday, July 11, 2014

Drafting the Owner Move-In Notice in San Francisco

Termination of tenancy starts from drafting and serving the notice of such termination, and the importance of making that notice as accurate and complete as possible is hard to understate. If the notice is defective, the landlord most likely will have to go back to the square one, starting the whole process again by reissuing and reserving the notice. Sometimes, months will pass before the landlord finds out about the deficiency. It may become a very expensive mistake to learn.

This article concentrates on the elements of a notice of termination of tenancy on the grounds of owner's move-in, the so called "OMI notice." It has quite a few elements and steps to be concerned about.

ATTENTION: this article was published in 2014, and things have changed since. Commencing on January 1, 2018, significant changes in the OMI/RMI procedure came into force. Read more here.  This is a fluid area of local law, your diligence in checking with the latest version of the law currently in force is required.