The 3 Compliance Deadlines Bay Area Property Owners Miss Every Year

Berkeley and Oakland both require property owners to benchmark their building's energy use and report it to the city annually. The program is called BESO in Berkeley and is part of Oakland's energy benchmarking ordinance. The deadline and specific requirements vary by building size and type, but most residential properties with 5+ units fall under the requirement.

The penalty for non-compliance in Berkeley starts at $500 per day after the deadline. Oakland's penalties are similarly structured. We have seen property owners rack up thousands of dollars in fines for a compliance item that takes about two hours to complete. The benchmarking itself requires pulling 12 months of utility data and entering it into Energy Star Portfolio Manager — not complicated, just easy to forget when you have a dozen other things going on.

We track this for every property in our portfolio, start the process 90 days before the deadline, and confirm submission before the due date. No fines, no surprises.

Both Berkeley and Oakland require landlords to register rental units annually and pay a per-unit fee. Berkeley's Rent Stabilization Board registration is required for most rental properties built before 1980. Oakland's Rent Adjustment Program registration applies to most residential rentals. Failure to register can result in fines and can affect your ability to pursue eviction proceedings.

This one is particularly frustrating because it is annual, the fee is modest, and the penalty for missing it is disproportionate. We have seen eviction proceedings dismissed because a landlord was not current on their registration. The entire process takes 30 minutes once you have done it before. The cost of not doing it is enormous.

California property taxes are paid in two installments. The first installment (for the period July 1 – December 31) is due November 1 and becomes delinquent after December 10. The second installment (January 1 – June 30) is due February 1 and becomes delinquent after April 10. Miss either deadline and you owe a 10% penalty on the unpaid amount. Miss the second installment by enough and the property goes into tax default.

The December 10 deadline gets missed more than you would expect — it falls in the middle of the holidays when attention is elsewhere. We calendar both deadlines 60 days in advance for every property we manage and confirm payment receipt before each delinquency date. The 10% penalty on a $25,000 tax installment is $2,500. The cost to track this is zero.