The September zipForm release will include 9 new forms to assist agents with the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA) which is scheduled to go into effect on Tuesday, September 3, 2019. That law provides that certain (currently 5) San Francisco Qualified Nonprofit Organizations (QNOs) will be given both a right of first offer and a right of first refusal to buy a 3+ unit San Francisco residential building. Mixed-use buildings and vacant lots zoned for 3+ units are included in COPA. The 9 forms have COPA1 through COPA9 in the footer and they provide a road map of what is needed at each stage of marketing a 3+ unit building. Agents who regularly list such buildings should create a Template in zipForm, consisting of all 9 forms, to apply to potential listings.
COPA1 is the key. It gives the list of the QNOs determined by the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development (MOH) to be given the opportunity to buy such buildings and on page 2 describes the full process. The other 8 forms include a Listing Addendum, a Purchase Addendum, a Property Description, Notification forms, and in COPA9, a Certification to be submitted to MOH after a closing that the law was followed. Look out for an Association video on the new COPA forms.
Other forms in the September release include updates to the RENT-SF and SDC-SF forms to reflect the increase in the annual Rent Board fee charged to landlords for each rental unit from $45 to $50, effective this calendar year (July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020). The local Disclosures and Disclaimers Advisory (GIBS-SF), which acts as an adjunct to CAR's SBSA (Statewide Buyer and Seller Advisory), has been updated to include advice to principals to download documents from weblinks referred to in GIBS while their transaction is active, since those weblinks, and the documents themselves, can change over time. The Soft Story Ordinance Advisory (SSBR-SF) has had weblinks within it updated and the Cooperative Apartment Purchase Addendum (CAPA-SF) has an update covering the circumstance of a lost Stock Certificate.
In practice - if you have forms in a Template that you know have been updated, you should probably replace them with the latest version. When applying a Template to a newly created transaction, zipForm will always bring in the latest version of a form. But what you should not do is start a new transaction by copying a previous one, because that will include the older versions of forms. zipForm always preserves which version of a form was used in a transaction for historical integrity reasons.
As always, if you have questions or recommendations for new forms or updates, please e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., copying the Association's attorney, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Many thanks to the 2019 Chair and Vice-Chair of your Standard Forms Committee, Dan Hershkowitz and Neal Corkery, and a special thanks to its Committee Member, David Parry, for their dedication and hard work.
