Nightmare for family whose dream home had skyline views and five bedrooms – now the city says it must be split into four units
Katelin Holloway remembers the moment she realized her family’s dream home might not actually be theirs to keep.
City officials had come to inspect the $4.75 million property in San Francisco, California, she had recently bought with her partner, Ben Ramirez.
As the couple walked the inspectors through the stylish five-bedroom house, the mood changed.
According to Holloway, the officials eventually turned to them and delivered a blunt warning: ‘You guys are screwed.’
The couple bought the five-bedroom North Beach property in 2021, believing it would be their ‘forever home’ – complete with skyline views that overlook San Francisco’s Chinatown and Financial District and space for their two young children.
But city officials later informed them that on paper the building is still classified as, and therefore should still be, a four-unit apartment complex.
Now the family faces the extraordinary possibility of being forced to carve their home into four separate apartments, installing new kitchens in bedrooms and potentially spending millions on renovations.
The headache began for the couple shortly after they purchased it when an anonymous complaint was lodged, prompting the inspection by city officials.
Katelin Holloway and Ben Ramirez bought a $4.75million North Beach property for their family in 2021, but things quickly went south when city inspectors revealed the building was still classified as a four-unit apartment complex
The couple bought the five-bedroom North Beach property (far right) in 2021, believing it would be their forever home
The family faces the extraordinary possibility of being forced to carve their home into four separate apartments, installing new kitchens in bedrooms and potentially spending millions on renovations
Four years later, the family, who have thankfully been able to live in the house the way they bought it for now, finds itself locked in a battle with tenant advocates and city planners.
They are scheduled to return to City Hall on Tuesday for another hearing as they continue appealing the city’s order to convert the home back into a four-unit residence, according to public records.
The couple maintains they were reassured by both their real estate agent and the home’s previous owners that the property’s configuration would not pose any issues.
But they admitted to the San Francisco Chronicle that they knew they signed up for a four-unit building.
That hasn’t stopped lobbyists from rallying against the family’s push to keep the home as is, with the policy director of the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition, Meg Heisler, telling the outlet the city shouldn’t make an ‘exception’ for one family.
‘Do we really want to say, as a city, ‘If you buy a $5 million house and claim ignorance, that we’re going to make an exception for you and say the law does not apply to you?’ Heisler told the Chronicle.
‘What message does that send to the department that is trying to do these enforcement cases, to the (planning) commission and, more crucially, to the real estate industry?’
As a concession, the couple offered to separate the downstairs bedroom from the rest of the house and install a kitchen reminiscent of a studio apartment, but the city’s vote was split down the middle 3-3, leaving them only an option of appealing the decision to the Board of Supervisors.
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San Francisco is in the midst of a severe housing shortage, making officials reluctant to allow changes that would reduce the number of residential units available
The rooftop of their multi-million home which boasts five-bedrooms and skyline views that overlook Chinatown and the Financial District, with enough space for their two young children
As a compromise, the couple offered to convert the downstairs bedroom into a studio-style unit, but the city deadlocked in a 3–3 vote, leaving them to appeal to the Board of Supervisors
San Francisco is especially strict about the zoning of the property because it sits in a ‘Residential Mixed, Low Density’ (RM-1) area, a designation typically reserved for small apartment buildings or houses with only a few units.
The city is also grappling with a severe housing shortage, making officials reluctant to allow changes that would reduce the number of residential units available.
Unit mergers are not entirely illegal in San Francisco. Homeowners and developers can apply for special permits and plead their case to the city, but in the past decade, the city’s San Francisco Planning Commission has rarely approved mergers that would reduce the overall number of available housing units.
Advocates are also stating that these conversions are a widespread problem due to how difficult it is to catch, since renovations happen behind closed doors.
But it remains unclear to both officials and the family who was responsible for merging together the Vallejo Street units, with the last record of it being a four-unit complex logged in 2016 by city inspectors.
At some point between then and when planning department workers toured the place in 2022, its interior had been improperly altered, the Department of Building Inspection told the outlet.
Her husband, Ramirez, said that the family would love to make their place a ‘forever generational home’ and they would continue to try to work with the city to meet its housing goals.
San Francisco City Hall, Ramirez and Holloway didn’t immediately respond to the Daily Mail’s request for comment.
