Eviction moratorium effect on landlords and property managers

[Tim Jacob]

Hi,

I'd like to share some experiences on what I have seen in the Baltimore area which is my neck of the woods.  

As many know the federal eviction moratorium ceased after a Supreme court ruling on August 26, 2021.   One argument against it was the opinion that if it endrd there eould be a massive tsunami of evictions.  This didn't happen.  One of the largest reasons is the legal system.  A good comparison would be a flood from a dam breaking instead of a tsunami.  Since it is now becoming right in certain crowds to call things infrastructure that arent related to something that most people consider that like a road, bridge, or dam  imagine the rent court being the dam.  Lets call it legal infrastructure.  Once the moratorium ended the courts were not excessively inundated with cases.  Prior to the pandemic the court could only handle do many cases at once.  Where I live that lead to a 5.5 month backlog between filing and trial time.   I went to the court as I was hired for an eviction the other day.  The time limit is now only 3 weeks better so by filing a few days before Christmas court will be May13th.  I talked to the clerks who Im sure have gotten a lot of complaints and it has to do with courtroom spacing which over the next month will ofcourse get bad again.  I was hoping that many cases would either have rental assistance pay or start having judgements be rendered.  There is a small section of the suburbs of Baltimire to the south in Anne Arundel county.  I am about to be hired there and found that filing to trial time is only a couple weeks.  Anne Arundel county has very little poverty.  I know reading this will make people say dont come to Baltimore or more blue collar big cities in democratic areas and stay in the less impovershed suburbs.  Even in Baltimore if you are in A or B grade areas you are going to be fine.

On the back end of all of this is screening criteria will be much higher than before.  There is no way around that as it directly relates to how much a landlord will lose if they pick the wrong tenant.  This will be unfortunate as it will lead to the homelessness the alt left were trying to stop.  However a landlord or property manager has a business to run and when an eviction that to 3 to 4 months is now 8 to 10 months things are going to adjust.  Apparently the city of Philadelphia doesn't think thats equitable enough for the tenant.  There any landlord cannot descrimnate against a tenant because of credit score, evictions, or criminal history.  If you do they think you should be subject to a $2000 fine.  If you reject someone you must show them the reports which is fine but if you do not have another unit available you could have an issue with the fine.   New York City proposed similar measures but just for criminal history.  That was shot down before it became law.  Though I do not work in Philadelphia I feel for the landlords up there.  I do think the credit score and eviction laws will be respected about as much as jaywalking and landlords will find ways around it but its the mere thought that someone thought that was ok  and that an actual law was passed shows a little where things are headed.

This being all said by the end of next month when covid is expected to start really subsiding for most of the country I think it would be good to track where things are headed on here.  I'd like to know how long it takes to get a failure to pay rent case in your neck of the woods now and in tbe coming months and if there are other avenues like terminating a month to month lease that are faster and a rough estimate of how long it would take to actually evict someone.  

I do feel based on how things are going that enough hard working people that are not only landlords but other hardworking middle class or upper middle class people are getting beyond sick of the system and the direction things are heading which is a direction towards Marxism which has had catastrophic consequences historically for obvious reasons In other countries.

That being said I would like this post to updated through the year as I expect after next month cases will start to cut down for most if the country.  With covid rates lower the court spacing excuse goes away.  I understand things take time but I feel a good time to revisit this after initial responses would be october and november.  By that time the moratorium will probably be rescinded everywhere as its over 85% right now and will be over 99% gone by the end of January asuming the places its still around dont extend them again, which I understand is an if.  Thus by October and November of 2022  we should see an improved filing to trial time for failure to pay rent cases and eviction time lengths dwindling as well.  If things have not improved I think october and november would be a great time to let the message get out and conveniently its right before the midterm elections and would help people consider who they want to vote for based on clear evidence.

Do you think a tenant shouod be able to steal from a landlord for close to a year or do you think 2 to 4 months even with legal represenration like it was 2 years ago is equitable for everybody moving forward with covid vaccines available?

Please respond about your part of the country.  Looking forward to the responses.