A: Merrie’s answer: Your situation is complicated and there is additional information needed to provide you a truly meaningful response. However, I can provide some guidance.

First, it sounds like you are a sub-tenant of your roommate since you pay rent to the roommate. Your status as a renter who can remain or remain at the existing level of rent after the departure of your roommate, is determined by your status under the San Francisco Rent Stabilization & Arbitration Ordinance. That status is influenced by whether the owner of the property (landlord) approved of your occupancy and the date when you moved into the unit. From the information you have provided, I can't determine your legal status to remain in the unit after the departure the master tenant.

It is unclear to me why your rent would be reduced by $100 if one roommate is departing. Generally the loss of a roommate results in rents going UP because there are fewer people to divide the rent between.

If you have overpaid rent, your master tenant should refund any overpayments to you, but that does not mean they will. You do have the right to file a petition against the master tenant at the Rent Board for what would be called an illegal rent increase or a rent overcharge. If you feel you have been overcharged or have overpaid, that is your least expensive remedy. However, you would need to file immediately as AFTER the master tenant moves out, the matter would not be eligable for hearing at the Rent Board as they would no longer have master tenant status.

I hope this is somewhat helpful. I recognize it is complicated.

(The information I have provided here is general in nature and my response does not create an attorney- client relationship with the person who wrote the question.)

A: Merrie’s answer: Since you are located in San Francisco, the first question is whether your tenancy is regulated by the San Francisco Rent Stabilization and Arbitration Ordinance. Unless you are in housing that received a permit of occupancy in 1979 or later, or you reside in a single family home or condo, it is likely you have a regulated tenancy. If so, rental increases are governed by the Ordinance.

The second question is what did you agree to pay for in addition to your monthly rent at the commencement of your tenancy. For example, did you agree to pay for your utilities or other services supplied to the property?

If you agreed to pay for outside services such as garbage, the next question is whether there are other units in your building and are the services billed to the landlord under one account? If you reside in a multi-family building (say a 4 unit property) and the garbage services are billed under a single account, it is likely you have received a bill for your pro-rata share of the garbage bill for a particular period of time. For example, you have received a garbage bill for 1/4 of the entire invoice for a period of 3 to 4 months.

Assuming you agreed to pay for this service or utility, the invoice is real and has been or will be paid by the landlord, there is no unreasonable service fee tacked onto the bill and no excessive use charge that is the responsibility of another tenant that has been tagged on to you portion, it is probably a valid bill.

If you did not agree to pay for your garbage and your lease does not require you to pay for garbage, you should not have to pay for garbage seperately. And, under the Ordinance, your landlord cannot just decide that garbage is now your responsibility - even if s/he provides you 30-days notice of the change in terms of tenancy. That would be an illegal rent increase.

I hope this helps you understand the circumstances under which this would be a valid invoice and the questions to ask to determine whether it is a justified valid invoice you should pay.

A: Merrie’s answer: It does not matter whether the tenant is residential or commercial. To obtain the credit history of someone you need their written permission. The use of consumer credit information is regulated by federal law and may also be regulared by the state you are in.