Tenants with serious arrears can now be evicted
Starting today, possession cases with severe rent arrears will be exempt from the eviction ban, meaning that Superior Court sheriffs and enforcement officers can act to enforce orders and complete evictions.
However, this will only apply to cases where the equivalent of nine months of rent arrears had accumulated before March 23, 2020, when the country entered a national lockdown.
“This is the news the landlords were waiting for.”
Paul Shamplina, Founder of Landlord Action, the leading landlord-tenant law firm, said: “This is very welcome news for those landlords whose tenants had stopped paying rent months before the pandemic and, until now, have been had given carte blanche to continue living rent-free.”
“However, there are concerns about how long it will take for homeowners, whose arrears cases do not meet the government’s definition of” substantial, “meaning nine months, to regain possession.”
The eviction ban started in March and ended in September, only to be reinstated in areas classified as Level 2 or Level 3 of COVID-19 risk.
On November 5, the government said that tenants would be protected during the second national restriction (from November 5 to December 2), without legal action, except in the most egregious cases, such as antisocial behavior.
The statement also said an exemption would be introduced for extreme pre-Covid rental delinquencies, which was announced today.
Paul Shamplina adds: “In short, the owners are not the banks or the welfare state. In fact, the banks get their money back, but the owners are expected to swallow these losses.”
“How is it fair that a landlord should cover the rent of someone who was no longer paying rent long before the pandemic started? Furthermore, the probability that Ms. Thorn or other owners in a similar situation will be able to collect the money owed is minimal.”
“While this is a positive step forward, there is a long way to go to clear the backlog of cases, and my concern now is for those owners who have cases with, for example, seven months of arrears in the payment of rent before March.”
With the current lockdown and then the Christmas amnesty, bailiffs will not enforce evictions until January 11, 2021, at the earliest, so even in the best of cases; those landlords will face more than 17 months without rent.
Landlord Action is acting on behalf of dozens of homeowners who have severe pre-Covid possession cases and who have been unable to act for the past eight months.
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