Thirteen households inside a 38-unit building at 535 Stockton St. in Nob Hill were told last week to clear out their belongings within seven days after a fire, even though San Francisco's Department of Building Inspection says no repair permits had been filed for the property. Some tenants, including a man who has lived there for 30 years, say they are refusing to go.
The fire broke out on July 25 in a unit two floors above the apartment of a longtime resident named Ahmad, who has lived in his fifth-floor studio for three decades, according to The San Francisco Standard. The fire was sparked by a faulty refrigerator, and Ahmad later found an inch of standing water in his kitchen, the outlet reports. Construction workers hired by the building's owner, Mill Valley-based Montgomery Partners, visited his apartment repeatedly afterward and eventually brought in large dehumidifiers.
Last Friday, attorney Dave Wasserman — who represents Montgomery Partners — emailed residents demanding they remove all personal items from their units by Sunday; leftover belongings would be placed in storage, per the same account. Any unremoved items, the email warned, would be placed in storage. The email did not include links to a secured Department of Building Inspection permit, nor did it list current rental rates for any of the affected units.
No Eviction Notice, No Permits, City Says
Despite the demand, tenants at 535 Stockton St. never received a formal temporary capital improvement eviction notice, the kind San Francisco's Rent Ordinance requires before a landlord can force tenants out for repair work lasting more than 20 days. The Department of Building Inspection confirmed no new permits had been issued for the building and posted a notice of violation on the property, later ordering the owner to obtain a repair permit within 60 days. The department also said a permit for the affected floors would not require tenants on other floors to vacate.
Wasserman told the Standard the move-out request was voluntary and that no residents were being evicted, saying the owners were working to restore the apartments to a habitable and safe condition. He said residents had an unequivocal right to move back once the city signs off on final completion, and that the landlord would not provide financial assistance for the move. Under the current Rent Ordinance, landlords carrying out qualifying no-fault temporary capital improvement displacements are required to pay a statutory base relocation fee of $8,245 per displaced tenant, with additional funds available for elderly, disabled, or minor-child households, according to Pine AI.
Wasserman's email promised a 30-day notice to move back once an apartment is ready for reoccupancy, and gave tenants 30 days after that notice to decide whether they'd return. It also required returning tenants to resume paying rent 45 days after receiving that notice — regardless of whether repairs on their specific unit are finished. The landlord separately offered a rent refund covering August 23 through the end of the month.
A Commissioner Sending the Notice
The dispute carries an added wrinkle: Wasserman sits as a voting Landlord Commissioner on San Francisco's Rent Board, appointed by former Mayor Ed Lee in 2015 and reappointed by Mayor Daniel Lurie in August 2026, according to the city's own biography of the commissioner. That means the same official body responsible for enforcing tenant protections includes a member representing a landlord accused of skipping the very permitting process those protections require.
Christina Varner, executive director of San Francisco's Rent Board, said temporary capital improvement eviction notices must contain permit documentation and a repair game plan — elements tenants say were missing from Wasserman's email. Hayle Meyerhoff, an organizer with the Housing Rights Committee, said illegal notices like this one can scare and confuse tenants into moving out preemptively, even when they have grounds to stay. The Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco helps tenants resist improperly served eviction notices.
Tenants Split on Whether to Fight or Flee
Reactions among the building's residents have varied. Eric Murphy, who has also lived at 535 Stockton St. for 30 years, said the move was not legally kosher but told the Standard he plans to leave by Sunday anyway. Tenant Christine Kawabata said she planned to temporarily move in with her boyfriend rather than fight the notice.
Ahmad, who has a cat named Edward, said he would not vacate and would not surrender possession of his unit. He filed a formal wrongful-eviction complaint with the San Francisco Rent Board on August 18, and said he plans to fight what he considers a voluntary eviction. Repairs on one unit in the building were expected to take up to six months, while other unit repairs were slated to take at least a month, according to the Standard's reporting.
Part of a Wider Citywide Pattern
The standoff at 535 Stockton St. lands amid a broader surge in San Francisco displacements. Citywide eviction figures are running at a 10-year high, and data from the San Francisco Sheriff's Office shows physical lockouts climbed from 804 in 2023 to 924 in 2025, with 352 already carried out in early 2026 — putting the city on pace to top 960 for the year, as Hoodline has reported.
For long-term renters at 535 Stockton St., the financial stakes of losing their units are steep. Three tenants there pay less than $2,000 per month for their rent-controlled studios, compared to San Francisco's citywide median studio rent of $2,650. Under the Rent Board's 1.4% annual increase cap for rent-controlled units, those tenants would have little hope of finding comparable housing at anywhere near their current rent if displaced.
The situation echoes a recent Nob Hill rent fight at 907 Valencia St., where tenants organized a rent strike in July after their landlord attempted post-fire capital improvement move-outs without proper permits or full relocation pay, and ultimately backed down under pressure. Montgomery Partners, founded in 1984, has completed more than $1 billion in real estate transactions across the Western United States and acquired the 535 Stockton St. building, built in 1925, in February 2020. Whether Ahmad's complaint and the Department of Building Inspection's 60-day permit order will force a similar reversal at 535 Stockton St. remains to be seen.
