Lucas County, Ohio Evictions and the CARES ACT - DISMISSED

[Andrew Fidler]

Good morning BP, I wanted to get a quick heads up posted regarding the CARES Act and restarting courts for evictions proceedings. Toledo, OH (Lucas County) is on day TWO of evictions. Not only was I in the room to understand the new criteria that evictions are being held to but watched as an eviction fell under the Act and the magistrate's decision!

(NOTE- this is only my county, I expect every magistrate is currently having to resolve this process individually so results will differ!)

The CARES act has several provisions, I am only referring to the eviction moratorium for federally backed mortgages from March 27th 2020 until July 25th, 2020 - 120 days which was something I have been careful to confirm with our owners isn't a factor. HOWEVER the Lucas County Court also is inquiring about the source of rental funding - Section 8 and in my suspicion all aid agencies (Lead Families Home, Red Cross, VA, Salvation Army, Lutheran/Catholic/etc Services) are ALL FEDERALLY FUNDED.

At the start of our evictions the magistrate inquired whether the property has any federally backed mortgage (Fannie, Freddie, VA, etc) OR if the source of income of the rent payments are federally sourced...if you attest "NO" then the evictions can proceed as normal. (Ours were standard evictions and concluded normally - these were evictions filed in February which were delayed due to COVID-19)

However I did witness an eviction also filed BEFORE the CARES Act which DID receive Sect 8 income and the magistrate moved to dismiss the case...in his own words "To my knowledge the case must be dismissed due to the CARES Act". The attorney representing the landlord motioned to continue the case until after July 27th and the magistrate took the suggestion under advisement (meaning he's going to look into the matter and issue a written ruling in a few days).

This suggests I witnessed my area's first application of the CARES Act on evictions - our court system seems to be broadly applying the standard and afterwards very politely invited the attorney to move the decision to an appeals court so it could be properly reviewed. Super exciting to watch judicial policy be formed! (I hope the landlord files an appeal for a review, the CARES Act is pretty specific that evictions filed before March 27th 2020 are not affected)

Conclusion:

1. 1) Check the funding source of your rental income before you file, this was news to me! You should already be aware whether the owner has a federally funded mortgage on the property. 
2. 2) Be mindful of July 27th 2020, so long as the CARES Act doesn't extend the moratorium on evictions this is the soonest you can file if you fall under the income or mortgage provisions.
3. 3) Get ready to spend more time at the courthouse! I don't have statistics but previously each room was hearing ~30 cases an hour, now it seems like less than ten meaning you will quite possibly have evictions spread out if you have multiple.
4. 4) Covid-19 makes it unique, seating every 6 feet with a checker board pattern in the court room.

I expect every Ohio County especially in our major cities of Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, etc will have their own interpretation with some variety...same with Detroit, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne. 

It has been a challenging 2020, and it will get more challenging as we near July 27th, expect a new wave of changes as news stories gather statistics for the post-July 27 Covid-19 evictions. I personally have been expecting the government to initiate a mortgage and rent funding bill to pay everyone (penalize no one) and push the economy further towards healing.

[Anna Sagatelova]

It's clearly stated in the CARES Act that receiving Section 8 income on a property qualifies it under the Act, i.e. disqualifies you from filing eviction until the 120 days expire.