San Francisco Resident Fights Sudden Rent Hike of More Than 400 Percent

The tenant now faces eviction after his rent skyrocketed to $8,000 per month.

ByABC News
June 27, 2016, 5:29 PM

— -- A San Francisco man faces eviction after his rent suddenly skyrocketed from $1,800 to $8,000 a month, allegedly without warning from his landlord.

Neil Hutchinson has lived in his North Beach home since 2010, his attorney, Mary Catherine Wiederhold, told ABC News.

"This is the largest rent increase I have ever seen," Wiederhold, who represents only residential tenants, said. "This rent increase is above market."

Since the landlord announced the increase and Hutchinson cannot afford the new $8,000 rent, she is now trying to evict him, Wiederhold said.

"I don't know where I'm going to go if I have to leave here," Hutchinson told local ABC News affiliate KGO-TV. "So, I honestly don't know what I'm going to do. I'm struggling here."

He said he filed an appeal with the San Francisco Rent Board but the decision will not come until early August, weeks after he is supposed to evict his home on July 21.

PHOTO: A San Francisco man is fighting to stay in his apartment, after his landlord suddenly hiked his rent from $1,800 a month to $8,000.
A San Francisco man is fighting to stay in his apartment, after his landlord suddenly hiked his rent from $1,800 a month to $8,000.

Hutchinson's landlord did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.

This June, real estate website Zumper ranked San Francisco the most expensive city for rent in the country. The city has seen growing tensions between landlords and long-time tenants in San Francisco's booming housing market.

Earlier this year a 99-year-old woman faced eviction from an apartment in the Lower Haight neighborhood where she had lived for more than 60 years.