The eviction moratorium extension established by the CDC is keeping a roof over the heads of renters, while landlords seem to be the ones suffering. Without monthly rent checks coming in, property owners must go without income for themselves, and the situation has forced landlords to take legal action. Earlier this month President Biden issued a new eviction moratorium through October 3rd, but the Supreme Court ruled that the CDC does not have the right to extend the eviction moratorium. Biden publicly acknowledged his move was against the law, saying the new moratorium will buy time for Americans to stay in their homes before the Supreme Court could rule on his action. Newell spoke with Luke Wake, an attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation, about the matter. Wake currently represents the Apartment Associate of Louisiana, and he says his clients are taking a real financial hit.
“The first eviction moratorium was put in place by Congress,” Newell said. “President Trump extended the moratorium. Biden himself has done so. Where do we find ourselves now?”
“President Trump issued an executive order, directing the CDC to issue an order like this,” Wake said. “That came down on September 4th of last year. Congress passed one just for the month of January, when the initial moratorium lapsed, but didn't extend it beyond that. Since then, the CDC has extended it. The CDC has made four extensions and the last extension came on August 3rd after the White House had acknowledged repeatedly that CDC lacked any sort of statutory authority. The Biden administration also asked Congress to enact a moratorium, but Congress chose not to.”
“The burn rate for landlords continues,” Newell said. “Insurance companies have to be paid, jurisdictions are not letting you not pay your property taxes, and there’s maintenance to do. These properties are being used, diminishing in value. Landlords have all of these expenses and they’re just supposed to stand there and say, okay?”
“They're expecting to continue to basically give their services for free,” Wake said. “It is frustrating - why not give assistance to these landlords? They have expenses. They rely on that rental income for the upkeep of their properties. There's a whole lot of people out there who just happened to own a single unit house that they rent out. Maybe that's the retirement plan, maybe that's how they're paying for their daughter to go to college, maybe that's how they're paying for their medications and their own household bills… without the ability to evict someone who's not paying, the landlord is in a real bind at that point. Congress and the president have decided they’re going to force all of those public burdens on those landlords.”
“I'm told in other areas of the country, they're playing the delay game again,” Newell said. “They are trying to get to this October date so that the Supreme Court doesn't actually render a decision.”
“That was one of the remarkable things about the President's statements,” Wake said. “On August 3rd he reversed course and said the CDC is going to issue this renewed moratorium order. Biden acknowledged this is unconstitutional, but it’s important that we do it because it's going to take time for these cases to be litigated. I think it’s an extraordinary lack of respect for the rule of law.. We just cannot allow the executive branch to strong arm American citizens without any basis or without any statutory constitutional authority.”
“These extensions, basically, have imposed upon the landlord a tenant that the landlord may no longer want, even before the pandemic,” Newell said. “The property owner has every right to not have a particular tenant if he or she doesn't want that tenant.”
“Correct, landlords have a common law right,” Wake said. “Under Louisiana statute, landlords have the right to control their own property, to expel a tenant who's not paying rent. Back in World War II, there were cases where the government would seize a factory because it needed to. There wasn't a doubt that they could do that, but that came with a requirement that they had to pay just compensation. But in this case, they don't even have statutory authority to do what they're doing.”
