In the last eviction moratorium, some U.S. landlords couldn’t evict non-paying tenants for over two years.
That is all but legalized theft. It’s like someone renting a car from Hertz without a credit card, then driving off on a two-year joy ride without paying.
First, the CARES Act placed a partial moratorium on evictions across the country. Then the CDC declared a nationwide eviction moratorium after it expired, initially scheduled to end 12/31/20, then later extended no fewer than five times. On the final extension, the Supreme Court ruled the extension unconstitutional on 8/26/21. That opened the door for landlords to enforce their leases once again — 18 months after the initial CARES Act ban on evictions.
However many states and cities implemented their own stringent eviction bans, barring landlords from starting the eviction process.
Those wound down over the course of 2022. But it left many real estate investors wondering: How can I protect myself from eviction moratoriums ever happening again?
The Precedent: Nationwide Moratorium on Evictions
The original CARES Act eviction moratorium expired in late July 2020, only to be replaced by a far more comprehensive eviction ban by the CDC. It blocked landlords from filing for eviction against most US tenants, and was extended five times before the US Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional on August 26, 2021.
Sure, the “American Rescue Plan” and other federal initiatives included $47 billion in additional funding for emergency rent relief programs. But they rolled out slowly and with much confusion.
The federal moratorium made lease agreements effectively one-way legal contracts. Landlords had to continue providing their service, but tenants could break their obligations with no enforcement mechanism in place for landlords. That left many landlords pinched with no rental income but lenders still demanding mortgage payments, local governments still demanding property taxes, properties still requiring maintenance, and insurance companies still sending bills.
While landlords could not file for eviction, tenants were still technically obligated to pay their rents, and after the eviction moratoriums expired, back rent was still due. That left many housing experts prophesying an eviction crisis in 2021, but it simply didn’t happen.
Now that the precedent is set, it’s only a matter of time until the government does it again when it’s politically expedient. After all, renters make up over a third of the voting population, while there are very few landlords out there. Which says nothing of how politically reviled landlords are. That leaves landlords at the mercy of politicians to be able to collect income on their investments.
8 Ways to Protect Against Future Eviction Moratoriums
Don’t like the idea of the government waving a wand and making your investment income disappear like a bad magic trick?
Me neither.
But I still like real estate as an investment. It pays higher long-term average returns than stocks, creates ongoing passive income streams, and generates appreciation over time. And that says nothing of the fantastic tax deductions for investment properties, along with write-offs like property depreciation.
That leaves you with a challenge to overcome: finding ways to take advantage of the perks of real estate investing without the added risk of an eviction moratorium.
Fortunately, you have plenty of options.
1. Invest in Non-Residential Real Estate
No one says you have to invest in residential properties subject to future eviction moratoriums.
Consider the following alternatives to residential real estate as an investor.
Land
Deni and I have invested in land and found it a fun business model. And it doesn’t hurt that you can buy parcels for as little as $100.
It works like this: you reach out to motivated sellers to pick up properties inexpensively, perhaps those in tax sale. You take ownership with a simple deed, then turn around and list the land for sale at retail pricing on land marketplace websites and Facebook groups.
Pretty simple, right? No tenants, no toilets, no termites. No renovations or repairs.
If you like, you can offer owner financing for buyers, and collect some interest on top of your sale profit. You can even structure it as an installment contract, so you don’t have to foreclose if they default. You simply reclaim possession and list it for sale all over again, and pocket any money they paid you to date.
Win, win, win.
Check out this land investing case study, and if you like what you see, take Seth Williams’ Land Investing Masterclass for a rich, detailed investing model to follow.
Self-Storage Facilities
Self-storage is the ultimate recession-proof investment.
When the economy turns south, people downsize. Which leaves them with more stuff than can fit in their new homes and offices. Enter: self-storage.
You could go out and buy an entire self-storage facility, of course. Or you could just invest in fractional ownership of a self-storage real estate syndication.
And real estate syndications open up a whole new world of passive investments.
Office & Industrial Real Estate
Commercial landlords don’t have to worry about eviction moratoriums.
You could invest in office buildings, industrial properties, retail space, or any other type of commercial real estate. As with self-storage investing, you don’t have to buy an entire commercial property by yourself — you can buy into a real estate syndication.
We even occasionally invest in commercial syndication projects in our real estate investment club. But for the most part, we focus on multifamily real estate.
Multifamily Properties & Mobile Home Parks
It’s not cheap to buy an entire apartment complex on your own. Fortunately, you don’t have to.
By investing passively in real estate syndications, you simply write a check (or send a wire, in today’s world). You become a fractional owner of the property, entitled to rental income, tax benefits, and a share of the profits when the property sells. All without lifting a finger or becoming a landlord.
It’s precisely how we invest every month in our real estate investment club.
“But Brian, apartment buildings and mobile home parks were still subject to the eviction moratorium!”
Yes, they were. But when you can invest smaller amounts of money into larger properties with professional property management, you reduce your exposure and risk. Plus, you can cherry-pick properties with lower rent default risk than others.
Real estate investments? Awesome. Being a landlord? Less fun.
Learn how to earn 15-30% on passive real estate investments in one free class.
2. Invest in Higher-End Properties
The higher up the socioeconomic ladder, the rarer the rent defaults during the eviction moratorium. Better-off renters simply didn’t default on their rents at the same rate as the lowest earners.
That meant that Class A and B properties saw far fewer rent defaults than Class C and D properties. Owners of higher-end properties took fewer losses on unpaid rents.
“Brian, aren’t you generalizing?”
Sure — how else should we assess trends among millions upon millions of renters? Now stop interrupting me.
One of the many reasons higher-income renters didn’t default at the same rates as low-income renters is credit history. High earners know the value of strong credit history, and they fiercely protect their credit scores.
Which brings us to the next way to protect against future eviction moratoriums.
3. Report Rent to the Credit Bureaus
Even if landlords couldn’t enforce their lease agreements through eviction during the moratorium, they could still report the rents as late to the credit bureaus. And, of course, the eventual eviction appears on the tenant’s credit report once the courts allow evictions again.
Reporting rent to the credit bureaus works as both a carrot and a stick. You reward responsible renters by helping them improve their credit, which will one day help them buy their own home. But it also penalizes tenants who stop paying their rent but keep using your rental property.
Use a rent collection service that reports rent payments to the credit bureaus, and watch more rents than ever roll in on time.
4. Buy Rent Default Insurance
Did you know that you can insure your tenant’s on-time rent payments?
For a few hundred dollars a year, you can buy an insurance policy that kicks in and pays the rent for them if they default. The insurance company pays you rent until you evict the tenant and replace them with one who, you know, actually pays their bills.
As a prime example of rent default insurance, check out The Guarantors or Steady and tell them we said hi!
5. Rent to Government-Subsidized Tenants
“Wait, what? Didn’t you just tell me to rent to high-income renters?”
Higher-end renters are one option to protect against eviction moratoriums. But they’re not the only option.
The government — or rather, taxpayers like you and me — pay some tenants’ rents for them. And while the government does plenty of things wrong, you can rely on it to pay its bills.
Programs like Section 8 can pay up to 100% of tenants’ rents. Of course, Section 8 tenants can come with their own headaches, such as abusing your property more than market renters. And that says nothing of the annual inspections that Section 8 requires.
Still, if you can find tenants who don’t pay any of their own rent, and get a 100% rent benefit, you don’t have to worry about rent defaults. Even in an eviction moratorium.
6. Collect Higher Security Deposits & Last Month’s Rent
The more money you collect from renters up front, the less likely they are to default on rent or trash your property. They have more skin in the game, more to lose.
Most states put a cap on how much landlords can collect for a security deposit, usually in the vicinity of two months’ rent. Make sure you don’t breach your state’s laws in asking for too high of a security deposit.
Higher security deposits also help weed out rental applications from people living hand-to-mouth. That said, you may need to offer some other perk to attract applicants if the rental market is cool. If you ask for two months’ security deposit plus last month’s rent up front, but other properties in your market just ask for one month’s rent, it’ll be harder to attract rental applications.
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What short-term fix-and-flip loan options are available nowadays?
How about long-term rental property loans?
We compare several buy-and-rehab lenders and several long-term landlord loans on LTV, interest rates, closing costs, income requirements and more.
7. Rent Properties Short-Term on Airbnb
If you like the idea of owning residential real estate, but never want to worry about rent defaults, you can always rent properties short-term on Airbnb.
In many cases, they cash flow better as short-term rentals, making it a no-brainer even if you aren’t worried about future eviction moratoriums. Check out Mashvisor’s comparison tool to see how any given property would cash flow as a short- or long-term rental.
Granted, some cities don’t allow landlords to list properties on Airbnb. Know your own market and laws!
Also beware that short-term rentals require more labor than long-term leases. You run a hospitality business as an Airbnb host. But you can always outsource that labor to a property manager if you wish.
8. Offer Your Property as an Extended Stay
Some landlords find that the “Goldilocks zone” for rental properties is medium-term rentals, also called extended stays.
Instead of renting to a tenant for a year, or to a vacation guest for a few nights or weeks at a time, you rent a furnished unit for a few months. Examples of extended stay renters include travel nurses, homeowners displaced by a fire or insurance claim, and traveling businesspeople.
The rents are typically 20-40% higher than long-term tenancy rents, and generally the employer or insurance company pays their rent. Read: no risk of rent defaults.
You do have to furnish the property just like an Airbnb, but you don’t have the same constant turnovers or wear and tear. Landlords in this real estate investing niche swear by it.
Final Thoughts
I don’t know if the next eviction moratorium will come next year, next decade, or next century. But now that the precedent has been set, it will almost certainly happen again when it becomes politically expedient.
That means you don’t want 100% of your portfolio to be single-family long-term rental properties. If you rely entirely on rental income to reach financial independence and early retirement, you could find yourself up the proverbial creek without a paddle.
As always, focus on diversifying your portfolio as much as possible. That includes both stocks and real estate, of course, but within each one of those broad buckets you also want to diversify. Hold U.S. and international stocks; small cap, mid cap, and large cap stocks; stocks from every industry. Invest in real estate in many cities, across many property types, serving different income levels.
You don’t know where the next crash or shock will come from. But you do know it will come, and diversification protects you from any one type of asset collapsing.♦
How worried are you about future eviction moratoriums as a real estate investor? How do you plan to protect yourself and your real estate investments against the possibility?
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Hi! You mentioned ”rent assistance programs”. Do you have any in mind to recommend?
Thanks in advance.
These are operated at the state and local level, but have been receiving federal funding. Call your local housing authority to ask for details about local rent assistance programs available.
Thanks for answering, Brian. I did what you recommend and found this website about rent assistance programs https://www.rentassistance.us/
i have been paying my rent all thru this difficult time. my landlord wants to sell this house i rent and plans to do so on July 1. i gave been searching for a house to rent within my budget and can’t find any. please help. i live in OKLAHOMA.
If a tenant’s lease is up, can they be evicted? For example, if a tenant who has not paid rent at all for the last 9 months has a year-long lease expiring, can they legally stay beyond the terms of the lease? And what can a landlord do about a squatter who refuses to leave: can heat be turned off, water disconnected, etc. since the lease has expired? Or does the moratorium protect a tenant from any eviction whatsoever? Thanks! Horrible that landlords of smaller properties are suffering even more through this…
Hi Allison, you can non-renew your tenant’s lease agreement. But the only way to enforce it is through eviction. You can try filing for eviction for illegal occupation of the property, rather than nonpayment of rent, but the judge might dismiss your case, if your local courts are even hearing eviction cases right now (some aren’t).
You might also direct your tenant to apply for rent aid.
Best of luck!
I owned a 22 room efficiency three story building. Tenants couldn’t pay but were mouthy about the eviction moratorium. My city supposedly had funds to help small businesses, landlords excluded. I was about to file bankruptcy, but a buyer came along.
No bankruptcy, no gain, big losses, and we have a long way to go. The law protects tenants, landlords will lose everything if no one pays attention. The city is crooked, the town, cops, courts, crooked.
I got out of there. Thank god I kept my other job.
Things are going to get much worse for small business landlords..
I’m so sorry to hear about your experience as a landlord Dori. I agree, it’s a huge problem. The government has basically shrugged off the economy’s unemployment problem on landlords, rather than providing rent support to keep tenants in place. Troubling time to be a landlord.
I live in an apartment complex that has been trying to evict me since September 2020, when all the Eviction Moratoriums started. I have constantly paid my rent every month. I was furloughed in March 2020 to May 2020 and still paid my rent, it was half, which is what the manager said i could do, but it was paid every month. I have every copy of the money orders I have given my complex since the day i moved in in 2015. They are trying to say that I owe them 2260.00 for unpaid rent and that is a lie and i have proven them wrong 3 times and they refuse to change their system for posting payments. They tell me the computer puts it where it should go. A computer does what a human tells it to do and not vice versa. When i give my complex the money order, i write on the money order “Rent for March 2021”. I have attempted to gain approval with 2 other complexes and have been denied due to what my current complex has on file with Leasing Desk, the company that vets potential tenants in Montgomery, Alabama. I will become homeless on March 31, 2021 when the current eviction moratorium expires. I am 55 years old, work a full time job, have a son in the Air Force and a son in a rehab facility. I have no other family to turn to. I am at my wits end about what to do with my apartment complex and the harassment that i have been getting. Any advice would be appreciated. Keep in mind that i have never stopped paying my rent since Covid -19 started March 2020.
I’m sorry to hear about your disputes with the apartment complex Jacki. Note that you will not become homeless on March 31 – that’s simply the date the eviction moratorium expires. To evict you, the apartment complex must serve an eviction notice, then file in court for eviction, then there’s an eviction hearing at the court where you both appear to present evidence.
Pull together the evidence that you made the rent payments, and in the meantime work on catching up any unpaid rents, and you should be fine.
In August 8, my tenant signed a short term temporary 3 months lease which expired November 7, 2020. Tenant decided to extend stay and paid for November 8 to December 7, 2020. On December 8, tenant (who is also a landlord at his 40 Acres Primary Property that has two 3-Bed 2-Bath Homes, one Home is vacant) told that rent was going to be late, because: 1) His tenant stopped, 2) Paid $20,000 hospital medical bill for his adult daughter baby delivery (daughter does not live in my rental, is not my rental tenant, and is not member of my tenant’s rental household. Not my tenants debt. Pregnancy and Delivery are not COVID related medical expenses), 3) Tenant claims that COVID shutdown affected his Uber and Lyft income. Thou his main work has been self employed for the past 20 years as a Stock Day Trader and Trainer, and freelance self employed Construction Contractor with $160,000/year earnings. Tenant started working for Uber and Lyft in November 2020, because he was bored after his Stock Day Trader ended early in the morning. Tenant owns another 40 Acres property that has a Quarry that generates income and a Medical Marijuana crop, another source of income. My tenant’s two working adult sons salaries (also my tenants listed on Lease Rental Agreement) are another source of income. My tenant claims that his Rental Agreement (the one broken by his tenant, when he stopped paying rent) prevents him from moving back to his vacant home because per Rental Agreement, vacant home can only be used for storage. I reminded my tenant that that agreement was broken by his tenant, when he stopped paying rent and that COVID Moratorium prevents spread of COVID by protecting a qualified tenant that is at risk of becoming homeless, move into a shelter, or crowed quarters. COVID Moratorium protects a qualified at risk tenant from Eviction, Lockout, or Utilities Shutdown. COVID Moratorium does not protect a qualified tenant from owner (landlord) moving back into his 2nd vacant Home, nor it protects tenant from owners moving back into rental unit. In fact, if tenant have other housing options, like a 2nd vacant home, tenant does not qualifies for COVID protection and is indeed committing PERJURY.
I’m sorry to hear about your saga with that tenant Albert. The eviction moratorium only protects renters at the primary residence, not second homes, so you should be able to file for eviction.
This is one of the few – if only – articles I’ve been able to read that actually sympathizes with the landlord. It’s nice to hear someone else can sympathize with the situation landlords and property managers have found themselves in! Our property in Washington has huge (over 300k) delinquencies and severe behavioral issues, all of which we can do nothing about due the moratorium. The people who are really suffering are our good tenants who are all paid up, and are being driven crazy by all the awful tenants we can’t evict. So all the good tenants end up moving out, and we’re stuck with the bad ones. Not to put a tin-foil hat on, but it really feels like our government is taking every small step forward that they can to involve themselves in more property/housing opportunities. Take advantage of an emergency, come to the rescue, and you’ve found yourself in a pretty powerful position to control the housing market…
I hear you Joy. It’s been a huge problem for a lot of landlords who have been left holding the bill after the other guests leave the restaurant. It’s worth mentioning that you can still file for evictions for lease violations other than nonpayment of rent, regarding your behavior problem tenants.
I wish you the best of luck with your Washington property, keep us posted about how we can help!
I had a stroke a year ago when my son died. I have a live in caregiver. I am current on my rent but the landlord had a dispute over a rug with my son who tented from her in a different house. She kicked them out because they tied their dog up and took them to court. The same landlord has given us notice to move on June 30th. The only reason is because her previous tenant, my son, comes over here with my grandkids.
I have a question, long but here goes. In May of 2019 a guy showed up here with a for sale sign, put it up for 2 days then brought me a note saying he bought the house from my landlord and was now our new landlord. Asked me to make list of everything needing . fixing. He raised our rent 200.00 a month. To this day may 2021 nothing has been fixed despite him calling me i.n Dec 2019 saying he would be sending someone over soon to fix everything. Never heard from him again, and has never returned any of our phone messages in two years. In 2 yrs we have not missed a rent payment even through the covid. He has not cashed any of the money orders in 2 years then all of a sudden tried to cash them and they are all expired so he shows up demanding we pay him 10,000. Now is it my responsability to call him every month to tell him to cash them? He is ticked that I didnt call him and that we used 1400.00 of it the day after Thanksgiving to put a new well pump in since we had no water. Was I suppose to keep trying to call him every day waiting for him to pick up while having no water? Can he evict us because we have not given him 10,000 which he says we owe him. Also we have done some digging and this house, taxes, everything is still in our old landlords name so now we do not know if he really owns it or not. I do know that they know each other but she is so shady we are not sure what kind a shady business is going on just that we have been uncomfortable being here the past 1.5 yrs. we are trying to find another place little do they know but we need the money at this point to get out of here. Do we really have to give it to him? We went through the same exact thing with the other landlord and he knew about it and we discussed it with him in may 2019. Not sure what we should do at this point. But sick of the harassment.
I’m sorry to hear that Laura. Make sure you keep all the receipts from the money orders, so you can prove you submitted your rent payments in full and on time. Beyond that, I would honestly move at the earliest convenience, because the situation just sounds sketchy. Besides, no one wants an absentee landlord. I’d find a rental property with a more responsive (and trustworthy) landlord.
I have been getting my rent paid through ERAP. ERAP will only pay for backed rent. When the Eviction Ban expires this month; will the court allow time for your rent to be paid through ERAP since they only pay three months at a time for back rent?
You forgot to mention the fact that there is also a moratorium on foreclosures and that mortgage payments are being deferred. So, unlike renters, who still have to pay every penny they owe in rent for every month of the pandemic, landlord’s with mortgage payments don’t have to somehow come up with 15 months of payments.
Also, regarding the rental assistance programs; I don’t know about the rest of the country, but in Marion County, IN, applications for the rental assistance program weren’t even available until 9 days after the moratorium was set to expire and payments have yet to be made. There is no possible way this money will make it to renters in time, especially since landlords in Marion county do not actually have to go through the eviction process. There is a special small claims court just for landlords where the judge does nothing but order possession of the property to the landlord. The entire process takes less than a month from filing to a the removal of a tenant by sheriff .
Also, although the federal money being given to states for rental assistance is supposed to cover up to 12 months back rent, Marion county is only granting a maximum of 3 months to applicants. Ostensibly, they will allow applicants to apply again at some point in order to ask for another 3 months rent, and so on. All over the state, even those few who have been notified of approval are reporting that they are being told that they can only get one or two months.
The foreclosure moratorium only applies to homeowners, not landlords.
As someone who has been living in an “eviction moratorium” state, I have been hurt by these extensions on the moratorium. Very vindictive, rowdy, noisy neighbors, constant partying all hours of the night, and nothing can be done thanks to the moratorium.
Living as a live-in caregiver for my elderly mother, I hate that she has had to endure these aweful neighbors for a year. Knowing that they can’t get evicted, they just do whatever they want.
Even pounding on our walls and door outside after (yet another) complaint is sent to management. Police called several times.
Our neighbors have put us through hell the last year, and I hope to god this moratorium doesn’t get extended yet again, so management can finally evict them.
I’m serious, this moratorium has seriously hurt my mother and I. Our neighbors don’t care, and even do things to deliberately antagonize us.
We’re thinking of getting a lawyer and filing a no harrassment suit. My mother is elderly, disabled, and has no where else to live, and has lived in her unit for almost 15 years.
Some people are just aweful and vindictive, and just take advantage of the situation and don’t care at all about others.
We’re sick of it.
I’m so sorry to hear that JS. The eviction moratorium should end on July 31, and the troublemakers will be evicted.
I am in s similar circumstance. My upstairs neighbors moved in in November 2020 in the middle of the pandemic (obviously proving the ability to pay rent) and have been noisy beyond belief on a constant, all day long, daily basis. The complex served them numerous letters of violation and then stopped addressing it, citing the eviction moratorium. What are MY rights as a rent-paying tenant? I have almost 200 videos of the thumping, bumping, banging, running, crying/screaming, fighting, etc that goes on up there EVERY day ALL day. The only peace and quiet I get is when no one is home up there. These people are rude and completely inconsiderate of the fact that people live below them.
I hear you Leanne, and I’m so sorry. That’s what rights group activists never understand: that bad behavior affects everyone, and you need teeth to be able to remove bad actors.
My daughter currently resides in NYC, and has had enough of the unpredictability of continued employment because of the Pandemic. She would like to return to the West coast to seek employment and I have offered her the use of my Mother-in-Law apt, free of charge, while she explores options. My current tenant has only paid $200 of the $7000+ she owes in back rent, while receiving ALL of the stimulus $$$ and State unemployment. Can I legally evict her during the Moratorium so my daughter can move in?
I’m sorry to hear that Clare. You can’t yet evict for unpaid rent, although you can evict for other lease violations (if any exist). The eviction moratorium should end on July 31, so you can start the eviction process for unpaid rent on August 1. I would be on top of it come August, because there’s going to be a long backlog of eviction filings like yours!
As an update, my governor just extented the eviction moratorium yet *again* (thanks, Inslee).
I have read that lease violations and illegal activity are enough to evict tenants. But management keep making excuses the last year and refuse to do anything. They’ve even stopped issuing complaints to the problem residents.
Whom should I contact about filing a suit, and getting these trouble neighbors out? We’ve had to put up with repeated noise, vindictive behavior, and lease violations from them for a solid year.
You can file in your local rent court for eviction, for lease violations other than nonpayment of rent. Just make sure you have good documentation about the lease agreement violations.
I work for a property management company and we cannot find any information on if we are allowed to charge late fees for this month (August). We’ve read through the CDC’s rules but some of them seemed contradictory. From my understanding, we can still evict and charge late fees for non payment as long as the tenant hasn’t submitted the Declaration of Hardship. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
I’m a landlord with one property and 2 units. My tenants have not paid any rent since January 31,2020. They’ve refused to work with me and collectively owe over $30,000. They run up the utilities causing triple costs. They sublease and collect rent from their tenants. But refuse to pay me. They steal things from the pretty that were left for their use or until I could get them. I first began to evict them in February of 2020, for breaking most of the lease and attempting welfare fraud. I pay more to support them than I do fir my household. They declared a hardship, but in NY State, one is not required to provide proof of said hardship. They never stopped working. Refuse to even apply for ERAP. They won’t qualify. I’m at a loss of what to do. I want out of this. They refuse me to inspect the home. They created malfunctions attempting to have the home deemed uninhabitable. Continuously harass me through the sheriffs office fir unfounded claims. And they just get to do all of this, with no repercussions. Mean while I am broke. We only rented the house temporarily. Lease was up May 31, 2020.
Most landlords in the area have sold their homes, making it difficult for honest renters to find a place to live. I’m for the moratorium for those who really need help and work with their landlords.
I pray, if the NY moratorium gets extended yet again, they will require proof of hardship. Currently, one checks a box and signs their name. It’s a farce. One could stub a toe and it would be a Covid hardship.
I need help. This is gone on for too long.
I’m so, so sorry Penny. It’s truly a nightmare for many landlords. Honestly it’s made me take another look at my real estate portfolio, and start moving into less regulated investments such as land. See this article as an example: https://sparkrental.com/scott-land-investing/.
My boyfriend owns a home in California that he has had renters in since 2017. good renters that have always paid the rent. They are on a month to month term and we currently rent out of state. Our landlord is selling his house and we are being asked to vacate. My question is this, Can we serve them with a 60 day notice to vacate so we can take the residence back to be our primary residence? is this moratorium situation a reason they can use to not move out?
Hi Sally, when the end of their lease term is approaching, you can send a non-renewal notice so they move out at the end of the lease term. But you can’t evict them mid-lease.
Brian I am a retired attorney in Lake County, CA. My son is a landlord. One of his tenants has not paid rent in nearly a year. My son has asked me to help him with an eviction. I am fond of CEB’s Unlawful Detainer Action Guide but with the recent Supreme Court decision ending the federal moratorium I’m not sure that it will be current. So my question is can I use the procedure that was in existence in CA pre-moratorium?
Hi Ed, I’m not an attorney, but in the absence of other guidance from local governments yes I’d follow the same procedures as before the moratorium.
Evicted renters must move, which leads to multiple outcomes that increase the risk of COVID-19 spread. Specifically, many evicted renters move into close quarters in shared housing or other congregate settings. These moves may require crossing state borders. According to the 2017 Census Bureau American Housing Survey, 32% of renters reported that they would move in with friends or family members upon eviction, which would introduce new household members and potentially increase household crowding. Studies show that COVID-19 transmission occurs readily within households. The secondary attack rate in households has been estimated to be 17%, and household contacts are estimated to be 6 times more likely to become infected by an index case of COVID-19 than other close contacts.[39] A study of pregnant women in New York City showed that women in large households (greater number of residents per household) were three times as likely to test positive for SARS-CoV-2 than those in smaller households, and those in neighborhoods with greater household crowding (>1 resident per room) were twice as likely to test positive.[40] Throughout the United States, counties with the highest proportion of crowded households have experienced COVID-19 mortality rates 2.6 times those of counties with the lowest proportion of crowded households.
Thanks for adding another perspective Cindy!
Landlord does not want to renew my lease for a third year. It’s already month to month. I appealed for additional funds under Unite CT. I’ve been waiting since Christmas 2021.
UNITE CT Rental Assistance capped me at 9 months.I pleaded extenuating circumstances due to furlough during COVID,dept of labor i.d. theft issues, and interviewing with no offers.
Landlord is impatient. no longer wants to wait for funds. telling me she wants me to leave March 31st.
CT lawyer(legal aid) said keep interviewing while waiting for Unite CT, continue to pay landlord when i can, write a check in full. Lease becomes month to month. Landlord cannot lockout or I should call the cops.
What about in Iowa?
im going though a divorce we live in her moms condo i feel on hard times and missed april through july rental and can start paying july rent there is no lease argreement we just pait month do i have any recourses
My tenant does not pay rent and does not pay off the Security Deposit balance on the second month after she moved in. She claimed she got Covid and no income for 2 weeks. She promised she will pay back when she got a check. But up to now, she got money but does not pay back to me. I filed an eviction (Texas). Then she applied rent assistance, I contacted Fort Bend county rent assistance, a lady told me, the processing will take 8 weeks for 1 case, and my tenant applied only for 10 days. There will be a long long wait for review and for approve or not. My question is: I don’t want to apply the rent assistance as a landlord side, can I go to the court to evict her?
I pay my rent in full. Have for 2 years. Lease expired, we’re on month-to-month.
Waterheater broke, landlord won’t fix it, 3rd time in 6 months, keeps “rigging heater.”. NO HOT WATER. (TX) Ordinance Violation. (Havent reported it yet to city, waiting for repair period to expire)
Landlord came to “fix” 3 days later at 9:30pm at night. We were asleep.
2 days later 30 day move notice, rent paid in full and current, NO explination WHY, 30 day notice says we didnt renew lease. We had verbal month-to-month for 8 months straight now. No problems.
LL won’t communicate in writing or in person,WHATSOEVER,makes us talk through secretary who won’t answer questions for new lease.
Also landlord reduced my rent 2 months back for no reason, and raised everybody elses, (recorded on my phone) that is discrimination against all the other residents we all have the same Apt.
Asked LL why rent increase he says matches current market value..But he reduced mine, I think this is a ploy for court somehow.
Landlord said RV in backyard is city violation and I have to move, (was there 2 years, city came out NO citations in 2 years.)
I ask for physical Citation from LL. Citation never provided, was forced to short sell RV, money/property lost.
From out of the blue, I get a 30 day to move. Never been a day late on rent for 2+ years. No major problems. NO IDEA WHY.
We think the waterheater that was reported 3rd time scared landlord, hes been sued before successfully for same issues,multiple ordinance violations, even lost property.
We think 30 day is retaliation for waterheater, 3rd time rigged,gas lines leak, now water is flooding on floor.
We have ALOT of evidence of neglect, MAJOR roaches,failure to repair all throughout complex.
Best to move out in 30 days and file suit? Or best to stay, pay full rent and sue?