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Committee backs rebuttable presumption excusing some small businesses from COVID shutdown rent
Summary
The committee advanced an ordinance introducing a rebuttable presumption that qualifying small commercial tenants who were legally required to close during COVID‑19 may be excused from rent due in that shutdown period; the measure excludes rent already covered by negotiated landlord‑tenant agreements and was forwarded as a committee report.
San Francisco — The Land Use & Transportation Committee voted July 19 to forward an ordinance that would create a rebuttable presumption allowing certain small commercial tenants to be excused from paying rent that fell due during government‑mandated COVID‑19 shutdowns.
Supervisor Dean Preston, the ordinance sponsor, said the measure targets small businesses with annual gross receipts at or below $25 million that were fully ordered to shut down and that it does not apply to businesses that voluntarily closed. The ordinance draws on state contract doctrines for impossibility and frustration of purpose and shifts the burden to landlords to rebut the presumption when appropriate.
Preston circulated a clarifying, non‑substantive amendment to exempt rent payments already addressed in later negotiated agreements between landlords and tenants. "In some cases, commercial landlords and their tenants executed written agreements in response to COVID‑19," he said; the amendment prevents the ordinance from overriding valid negotiated settlements.
Public commenters representing API Legal Outreach, pro‑bono counsel, restaurateurs and neighborhood merchants supported the change as critical relief for businesses that accrued large back‑rent liabilities. Several landlord‑representative callers urged a narrower threshold and said owner relief or grant programs should be expanded in parallel.
The committee voted to send the ordinance as amended to the full Board with a positive recommendation.
What happens next: The ordinance will be heard by the full Board of Supervisors, where further amendments or companion financial relief measures for property owners may be debated.
Votes and procedural status: The committee approved the amendment and forwarded the item as a committee report by roll call.
