$1,790 a month and 'no cooking' allowed: Welcome to renting in the Bay Area

A sampling of Bay Area Craigslist advertisements from March 15, 2019, of units being advertised without kitchens and no cooking or light cooking privileges. A sampling of Bay Area Craigslist advertisements from March 15, 2019, of units being advertised without kitchens and no cooking or light cooking privileges. Photo: Craigslist Screen Grab Photo: Craigslist Screen Grab Image 1 of / 17 Caption Close $1,790 a month and 'no cooking' allowed: Welcome to renting in the Bay Area 1 / 17 Back to Gallery

For $1,790 a month, you can rent a master bedroom in San Francisco's West Portal with ocean views and easy access to public transit. The major catch: No cooking allowed.

In North San Jose, you'll get a master bedroom suite with a walk-in closet and a private entrance for $1,400 a month. But read the fine print of the Craigslist ad: "No cooking, No drugs, No marijuana/pot, No smoking, No pets, No overnight guests."

Some Craigslist ads forbid kitchen use, but give tenants microwave and hot plate privileges. Others lack kitchens entirely, and even more say cooking isn't forbidden outright, but discouraged.

A listing near Stanford University for a $1,500-a-month "fully furnished" studio lacks some obvious furnishings; namely, a stove and oven. Though the Craigslist ad says a "fridge, microwave, and toaster" come with the rental, there is "no cooking inside the room or kitchen access." But concessions can be made: "An outdoor area is set up with cabinet/countertop, microwave and electric outlet right outside the room for light cooking."

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In an expensive city like San Francisco, tenants must sometimes take desperate measures — like renting apartments where food preparation is forbidden. It's not just renters feeling the pinch. Some homeowners may feel compelled to rent rooms in their private homes to simply stay afloat. In this case, a landlord might ask a tenant to abstain from using common spaces, like the kitchen, especially if there are other occupants in the home, including children.

A recent Bay Area Craigslist search with the term "no cooking" returned 93 hits, some of which specified "no cooking" in the unit or, less rigidly, "light cooking," for which no definition was given.

SFGATE reached out to some of these Craigslist posters, asking for clarification and explanation, but none responded.

We included some of the listings in the above gallery.

The legality of renting units without kitchen access or cooking abilities appears to vary among jurisdictions. No federal law enforced by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires rental units to have kitchens, a spokesperson for the Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Office told SFGATE.

At the state level, things get more complicated. California Health and Safety Code (2.17920.3) says tenants must have access to necessities like a working toilet, heat, running water and a "kitchen sink" made of non-absorbent material. It does not specify if tenants must have access to cooking facilities, nor does it provide a definition of "kitchen."

California law does not require landlords to supply appliances, such as refrigerators and stoves. Different rules apply to single-room occupancy units, which are considered residential hotels.

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By this token, if a master tenant or landlord advertises a room in a unit that has a kitchen, he could ostensibly forbid the tenant from cooking or using the kitchen as long as the restriction is clearly stipulated in a contract, and the tenant continues to have access at least to the kitchen sink, said Joseph Tobener, an attorney specializing in tenant law and the managing partner at Tobener Ravenscroft in San Francisco.

In theory, this applies even in cities whose housing codes require that every dwelling unit comes equipped a kitchen, including municipalities like San Francisco and San Jose. "Kitchen" is defined as "any room used, or intended or designed to be used, for cooking and preparing food" in the San Jose Municipal Code (20.200.590).

To add to the complexity of the cooking issue, California law requires all rental units to have certificates of occupancy, a precedent established in the 1978 case Gruzen v. Henry. To qualify for a certificate of occupancy, the unit must have a kitchen, Tobener said. Without a certificate, the landlord cannot legally collect rent.

In the case that a landlord rented a unit with a kitchen, then took kitchen privileges away, the tenant could file a "decrease in housing services" complaint with the city, said Jennifer Rakowski, a San Francisco Rent Board supervisor. In San Francisco, the Rent Board "has no authority to compel the landlord to restore the service," according to documents on the agency's website, "but can only order a rent reduction for the loss of the housing service."

It's wise to know your rights, and to be aware that not every listing on Craigslist and similar sites meets legal requirements, Rakowski warns.

"If a landlord is renting a unit without kitchen facilities," she said, "it may be that the space is un-permitted."

Read Michelle Robertson's latest stories and send her news tips at mrobertson@sfgate.com.

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