Deadline for US eviction moratorium has passed 3:35
(CNN Business) -
The federal moratorium on evictions has expired and landlords in many parts of the country can officially begin removing people from their homes.
Although more than 3 million people said they would likely be evicted "in the next two months," according to a census survey from early July, and nearly 5 million tenants said they will not be able to pay their August rent, that does not mean that they will be evicted immediately.
After a last-ditch effort by House Democrats to extend federal protection fell apart on Friday, some states and cities are taking matters into their own hands.
What happens next to struggling tenants will largely depend on where they live.
States like California and New York have extended their state eviction moratoriums.
Other states like Minnesota and Nevada have laws that keep tenants protected from eviction while they are in the process of applying for emergency rental assistance.
Other localities have taken additional action.
For example, in the Atlanta area, DeKalb County Superior Court Chief Judge Asha Jackson entered an emergency order Friday that would establish a ban on evictions in the county for an additional 60 days after the ban ended. federal.
In Florida, which has some of the hardest hit residents and some of the lowest local tenant protections in the country, cases have been moving through the courts for as long as the eviction moratorium was in effect.
The eviction process is allowed to continue to the point where the court issues a possession order to the landlord.
"That's where the eviction moratorium stopped the process in Florida," said Jeffrey Hussey, director of public interest and litigation for Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida, an organization that covers a 12-county area in central Florida around Orlando.
"Even if a possession warrant had been issued, it prevented the sheriff from giving the tenant 24 hours to leave."
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Now that the ban has expired, Hussey said, the difference between some people having a roof over their heads or not is the pace at which judges and sheriffs act.
ANALYSIS |
America, it's time to pay the rent
What happens in an eviction?
But that comes after a complicated legal process that can take weeks or months.
In some states like Florida, that process was allowed to continue until the final step of removing a tenant, while other jurisdictions stopped eviction proceedings earlier in the process.
Different jurisdictions have different regulations on eviction procedures, but generally the process to evict a tenant for nonpayment of rent begins when the landlord issues a notice to the tenant to "pay or evict."
This informs the tenant that he is violating the lease.
It provides instructions on how much they must pay and how long before an eviction is filed with the court.
If they do not pay in the specified amount of time, usually three to five days, the landlord can file an eviction complaint with a court that starts the eviction case.
The tenant is notified of the eviction case.
In Florida, tenant cases are not heard in court until they enter the amount of back rent they owe into the court record, Hussey said, unless they dispute the amount owed or there is a procedural problem with the paperwork.
"Nine out of ten people don't have money to deposit. A final judgment is made and basically the owner wins."
After that, he said, the judge issues a court order that allows the landlord to take possession of the property by evicting the tenants and triggers the final step of the eviction.
The local police deliver the warrant to the tenant.
In Florida, once notified, the tenant has 24 hours to leave.
After 24 hours, the sheriff or landlord can forcibly evict the tenant and lock the door.
This can be done with or without the tenant's belongings inside.
"If you stay longer than 24 hours, you could be arrested for burglary, then you have a whole new set of problems," Hussey said.
For renters in Florida who have eviction cases that have already gone through the courts to the point where the moratorium stopped them, Hussey speculated that the earliest a tenant would need to leave would be Wednesday.
What happens without an eviction moratorium?
Without an eviction moratorium in place, the focus is on how judges and law enforcement handle cases.
"We cannot control how fast the judges will move," Hussey said.
"Judges may not want to move quickly on evictions realizing the potential problem it will create, but ultimately they have to comply."
The best scenario, Hussey said, is for the judges to take into consideration that tenants have pending emergency rental assistance applications.
However, there is nothing in the law that requires a judge to delay or postpone the eviction.
He said the first thing he asks tenants is if they have requested emergency rent relief.
Minimum wage workers cannot pay rent anywhere in the United States
"If they haven't applied for rent relief, that's priority number one," he said.
“It gives us an argument in court.
We can say 'This person is in the process of raising funds through an emergency rental assistance program.'
If they are accepted, the landlord will remain intact.
The judge is not obliged to take that into consideration, but it is something we can throw against the wall. "
If there is nothing else to delay the procedure, he said, legally there is not much more he can do for the tenants and he becomes a de facto counselor.
"People panic" once legal options have been exhausted, he said.
"We try to help them prepare. They need to think about gathering their things. Think about who you know who has a truck. Does anyone have a storage facility that you can borrow or a garage? Can you find a place to put a roof over your head? ? "
He said he and his colleagues can make an effort to seal that eviction record, because in Florida, once you get an eviction on your record, it is a "scarlet letter for future homeowners."
"We are very grateful for the eviction moratorium, but it is nothing more than a band-aid," Hussey said.
"We have been preparing for the end of the moratorium for months. We now know that the band-aid is gone, so many other systemic issues are going to reveal themselves: lack of affordable housing, lack of access to legal representation. for tenants, lack of a roof over people's heads after eviction. "
If you are looking for emergency rental assistance, there is a searchable list of programs available from the US Treasury and also lists administered by the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the National Housing Conference.
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