Earlier quoted context omitted.
True, I was thinking from the perspective of a grad student. I got a nasty shock when my "original tenant" housemate moved out and my rent jumped up 20%. (Berkeley rent control only applies while at least one original tenant remains, but I had no idea I was benefiting so much from rent control up to then.) 20% may not sound like a lot, but I'm pretty sure grad student stipends haven't gone up more than a few % over t…
> I got a nasty shock when my "original tenant" housemate moved out and my rent jumped up 20%. Thanks for posting this. I have a nice sunny one bedroom apartment for $1000/month a few blocks away from UC campus, which I'm only getting for that price because I pretended to move in with my friend, when in actuality he was moving out of the building after living there for around 4 years. So our names are both on the lea…
I believe if your name is actually on the lease, you are protected by rent control the same way as the original tenants. What a lot of landlords (like mine) do is deliberately avoid adding new housemates to the lease, basically treating them as subletters who then aren't protected by rent control.
See: http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/Rent_Stabilization_Board/Home/G...
> The new roommates are considered subtenants of the original occupants as long as they do not sign a lease or rental agreement with the landlord
> Thus, a landlord may implement a vacancy increase (i.e., establish a new initial rent) by giving 30 days' written notice if (1) there has been a complete turnover of original occupants; (2) none of the remaining occupants lawfully resided in the unit before January 1, 1996; (3) none of the remaining occupants has signed a lease or rental agreement with the landlord