{"id":856,"date":"2020-12-31T17:08:25","date_gmt":"2021-01-01T01:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.managementone.com\/?p=856"},"modified":"2024-02-02T17:13:56","modified_gmt":"2024-02-03T01:13:56","slug":"7-insights-for-landlords-on-the-cdc-eviction-moratorium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.managementone.com\/7-insights-for-landlords-on-the-cdc-eviction-moratorium","title":{"rendered":"7 Insights for Landlords on the CDC Eviction Moratorium"},"content":{"rendered":"

*** The theme of this article was originally published by the Rental Housing Journal on December 14th, 2020***<\/strong><\/p>\n

As of December 27th, President Trump signed a new relief package. In that package, the CDC moratorium was extended to January 31st, 2021. It should be noted that local governments may extend their moratoriums past this date.<\/p>\n

Attorneys Jeff Watson, in Cleveland, and Jeffrey Greenberger, in Cincinnati, virtually sat down with Charles Tassell, chief operating officer of the National Real Estate Association. The attorneys shared their insights, NOT LEGAL ADVICE, on how landlords and property management companies can best react to the moratorium.<\/p>\n

You can hear the full discussion here on\u00a0YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have gone from unprecedented to crazy,\u201d Watson said. \u201cWhat concerns me the most \u00a0is that this is now creating a precedent for future administrations, future agencies, to use this as a rationale, to stop all sorts of economic commerce across the United States of America, any particular form of commerce, any type of interaction, any type of business agreement, (or) consumer agreement that they don\u2019t like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Number 1:\u00a0 Landlords can still file evictions<\/h2>\n

\u201cI need you to understand it\u2019s called a moratorium,\u201d Greenberger said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t file evictions against your tenants.\u201d<\/p>\n

He goes on to explain that legal-aid societies are going to provide copies of affidavits for residents to sign, \u201cand they\u2019re going to ask everyone going in, \u2018Are you a tenant?\u2019 And they\u2019re going to say, \u2018Sign it.\u2019 And they\u2019re not going to tell people that there\u2019s the possibility they could go to prison if it\u2019s not accurate, which is true,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Most likely, they are going to tell the resident, \u201cYou don\u2019t have to leave. You don\u2019t have to pay your rent for the next, at least four months, probably a year,\u201d Greenberger continued. \u201cAll you do is sign this piece of paper, no harm, and that\u2019s all wrong, but that\u2019s what\u2019s going to happen. And the problem is that as soon as the tenant signs, that piece of paper \u2013 and I\u2019m oversimplifying it a little bit \u2013 the court has to stop the eviction.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed out that attorneys could challenge the affidavits in court and that landlords and property managers need to help out their eviction attorneys by documenting all the proper evidence needed by the courts.<\/p>\n

It is highly recommended that landlords and property managers, ask a lot of questions of their local eviction attorneys.<\/p>\n

Number 2:\u00a0 Are month-to-month leases better right now?<\/h2>\n

One of the questions asked is whether landlords would be better off offering a month-to-month lease, staying away from longer leases.<\/p>\n

Both attorneys pointed out that there are too many local laws on lease terms to address on a grand scale. It is recommended that you speak to a local attorney on the matter.<\/p>\n

Number 3: Sue Residents for rent, not an eviction<\/h2>\n

\u201cThere is no moratorium on suing people for rent,\u201d Greenberger said. \u00a0\u201cI think the new moratorium might allow a little crack of light, but it\u2019s a state-by-state, city-by-city possibility. And I think it\u2019s a very slim crack of light. What I\u2019m recommending to people (is) you just sue people for rent \u2013 not for eviction \u2013 in small-claims court,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of my clients are hiring me out hourly\u201d to sue tenants, Greenberger said. \u201cWe\u2019re not evicting them. We\u2019re just saying \u2018you now owe four months in rent and it continues to accrue. And on the day of judgment, we\u2019ll make a judgment against you.\u2019 \u201c He said once a judgment is entered and the tenant is working, a landlord can take wage garnishment or go after bank accounts.<\/p>\n

Number 4: Establish communication with residents and document it<\/h2>\n

Communication and documentation with residents are important in the federal eviction moratorium.<\/p>\n

Watson is advising landlords and property managers to be proactive with residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have maintained a lot of communication, much more than the normal, with all my tenants during this particular season. And if there\u2019s something wrong, I want to know about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so, I\u2019m telling folks (to) establish a pattern of communication, because, under that CDC moratorium, there\u2019s got to be communication. And if there\u2019s not bilateral communication, then that\u2019s a very big piece of evidence,\u201d which can be presented to the court in the landlord\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n

The best way to communicate with millennial residents is through text messages. Take screenshots of the text messages, and keep records to show a court if needed.<\/p>\n

He suggested opening up communication with \"Talk to me. How can I help you?\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is going to be a test of how well do you do your business of being a landlord. Yes, it\u2019s getting infinitely harder. You\u2019ve got a vested interest. You\u2019ve got communication skills. You understand why every word in that lease is there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Number 5: Don't bring your phone to court to show evidence<\/h2>\n

\u201cAs a practicing attorney, lots of my clients come into court with me and say, \u2018I\u2019ve got text messages,\u2019 and they try to show me their phone,\u201d Greenberger said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t want your phone held as evidence in the court files for the next two years, you need to bring those printed-out multiple copies if you want those entered into evidence, otherwise I have to have your phone seized and entered into evidence. So please don\u2019t do that to me or your own attorney,\u201d Greenberger said.<\/p>\n

Number 6: Federal Eviction Moratorium only applies to residents not paying rent<\/h2>\n

It's important to keep in mind that the CDC moratorium only applies to residents who are not paying rent. If the resident is in breach of their lease agreement for other reasons, you can proceed with filing an eviction. Just know, the eviction will take much longer than pre-COVID.<\/p>\n

In the affidavit the tenant is supposed to provide, they have to say, \u201cI have used best efforts to obtain all available government assistance for rent or housing,\u201d Greenberger said. He said the law says everyone in the household must sign an affidavit.<\/p>\n

Number 7: The problem is the \"one-size-fits-all\" with the CDC eviction moratorium<\/h2>\n

\u201cThis is not the time to be doing your own evictions,\u201d Watson said. \u00a0There is a $200,000 penalty or fine for violating the order.\u201d<\/p>\n

Summary<\/h2>\n

The best thing you can do as a landlord and property manager is to make your voice heard on the matter. You can use\u00a0VOTER VOICE<\/a>\u00a0as a platform to speak your voice. This situation is developing and you can expect to see lawsuits across the country regarding the issues discussed here.<\/p>\n

\"grimacing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*** The theme of this article was originally published by the Rental Housing Journal on December 14th, 2020*** As of December 27th, President Trump signed a new relief package. In that package, the CDC moratorium was extended to January 31st, 2021. It should be noted that local governments may extend their moratoriums past this date. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-property-ownership","category-landlord-education"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.managementone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.managementone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.managementone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.managementone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.managementone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.managementone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.managementone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.managementone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.managementone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.managementone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}