Petitions may be filed for a variety of reasons, most commonly to have the Rent Board determine the rent. Some of the other common petition filing grounds include: decrease in housing services, illegal increase, failure to repair and maintain, roommate proportional share of the rent, utility passthrough challenge, water passthrough challenge, violation of the Residential Hotel Visitor Policy, capital improvement passthroughs, operating and maintenance passthroughs, extension of time (to perform capital improvement work), comparable rents, intent to withdraw (Ellis), utility passthrough petition, utility passthrough worksheet, Costa-Hawkins determination, Rules and Regulations §1.21, capital improvement hardship applications, hardship applications, and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). Petitions are also accepted on “other” grounds. For more information, please see:
http://sfrb.org/fact-sheet-5-landlord-petitions-and-passthroughs and
http://sfrb.org/fact-sheet-6-tenant-petitions.