Thursday evening, the Supreme Court issued an Opinion that blocked the Biden administration’s recently reissued CDC Order, which had protected eligible tenants from actual eviction from their rental homes. “If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it,” the court wrote in an unsigned, eight-page opinion.
In the unsigned eight-page majority opinion the Supreme Court stated the CDC, in barring evictions, relied on “a decades-old statute that authorizes it to implement measures like fumigation and pest extermination” and “strains credulity to believe that this statue grants the CDC the sweeping authority that asserts”
What does this mean?
This means that starting on Aug. 27th, evictions will no longer be “halted” by CDC Declarations. Cases that are in process anywhere in the nation can now proceed all the way to a conclusion, when necessary, up to and including lock-out/set-out. A couple of important additional items, however, are worth raising for you as reminders:
- the CARES Act is still the law today and was not impacted by the Supreme Court’s decision. So, “Covered Properties” should still expect to send 30-day notices to tenants prior to filing cases for ‘non-payment of rent’, as those NTVs will likely remain required into the foreseeable future; and
- ALL landlords remain subject to the terms and conditions agreed to as part of rental assistance programs they take part in. We encourage our clients to ALWAYS provide us with copies of all written rental assistance program documentation with any new case submissions, so we can review them and advise of any issues raised by those Agreements.
See below for “Covered Property Guidelines”
What does this mean if you are a “Covered Property?”
(i.e. one with a ‘federally backed’ mortgage. Scroll below to learn more about covered properties)
It means that Sec. 4024(c) of the CARES Act will continue to require a 30 Day Notice to Vacate be sent to any resident who is behind in their payment of rent before you can submit an eviction case to the Court (NOTE: the 30-day NTV is not required to file for ‘other’ breach of lease cases, only non-payment ones.)
Going forward:
- You should not change your practice of providing a 30-day NTV to each non-paying tenant unless: (a) your Property’s mortgage loan type changes (due to a sale or a re-finance of the loan, in which case let us know via the Contact Us form at the bottom of this page); or (b) HUD or some other Federal authority confirms that this 30 Day Notice to Vacate requirement has come to an end or is no longer applicable.
To learn more about the CARES Act, click here: https://loebsackbrownlee.com/cares-act/
To learn more regarding these recent updates, please check your email, or click here to sign in to the client portal. Contact us for any additional questions. https://loebsackbrownlee.com/contact-us/
