SAN FRANCISCO—Veritas Investments, San Francisco’s largest real estate investment manager, threatened legal action against the House Rights Committee of San Francisco (HRC) over the leak of sensitive information regarding the 76 rent-controlled residential buildings that the company posted for sale despite pressure from elected officials.
HRC took to Facebook on January 20 to announce the list of the properties in question. Newly-elected Supervisor Dean Preston says that the goal was to delay the sales of the apartment buildings for the sake of a negotiation period with investors, tenants, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and non-profit partners. Exactly how the group got ahold of such sensitive information has raised a legal debate.
According to San Francisco’s Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA), certain non-profit organizations have the right to make the first offer or refusal on certain properties in the city, including those for sale by Veritas Investments. The units were listed exclusively to qualified non-profit organizations on December 20, 2019 and the investor complied with the law by marketing to potential buyers on January 18, 2020.
Juliana Bumim, a Veritas spokesperson, says that, “Three qualified nonprofits came forward and…Veritas provided all the information…rent, addresses, contact info, confidential private information. At the end of the 30 days, none of the nonprofits made an offer.”
Bumim alleges that the HRC released confidential information on Facebook in a move that was a “deeply problematic” breach of confidentiality that may have undermined the possibility for negotiation.
Veritas attorney Jonathan Sommer requested that the social media posts be taken down and the company, “will take further action as it deems appropriate to protect its rights, the rights of its tenants and the confidential information.”
Veritas has reportedly written a letter to HRC threatening a lawsuit if their requests were not met by 5 p.m. on January 28. As of print, the posts are still live on Facebook.
