With the pandemic in full swing and the loss of a substantial number of jobs in March 2020, the governor of the state of Florida issued Executive Order 20-94 on April 2, 2020. The Executive Order provided, in part: “I (the Governor) hereby suspend and toll any statute providing for an eviction cause of action under Florida law solely as it relates to non-payment of rent by residential tenants due to the COVID-19 emergency for 45 days from the date of this Executive Order, including any extensions.” That order expired May 17, 2020 but was extended through June 2, 2020 by Executive Order 20-121 and further extended through July 1, 2020 by Executive Order 20-137 and through August 1, 2020 by Executive Order 20-159.
On July 29, 2020, the Governor issued Executive Order
20-180, that continued the eviction stay, but included a condition that tenants
must meet to avoid eviction. Specifically, the non-payment of rent must be due
to the tenant being adversely affected by the COVID-19 emergency. The Order defines that as being “…loss of
employment, diminished wages or business income, or other monetary loss
realized during the Florida State of Emergency directly impacting the ability
of a residential tenant to make rent payments.”
This means that in any eviction action the tenant will have an
affirmative duty to show a court that the tenant’s non-payment of rent is
Covid-19 related.
The eviction process in Florida is regulated by Chapter 83,
Florida Statutes, the Landlord-Tenant Act.
No eviction may be commenced nor may any landlord exercise a self-help
remedy without complying with the provisions of the Landlord-Tenant Act and the
judicial procedures promulgated thereunder.
First, landlords must provide a delinquent tenant with a written notice
providing the tenant at least three business days to bring the lease current.
If the tenant fails to pay, the landlord may commence an action in the Florida
courts for eviction. A complaint is filed and must be served on the tenant
either by personal service (a requirement if a landlord is seeking damages for
unpaid rent) or by posting a copy of the complaint and summons on a conspicuous
location on the rental property if two attempts for personal service have
failed (only if the landlord is seeking possession and not seeking damages for
unpaid rent).
Tenants have five business days to file a response to the Landlord’s
complaint. It is during this point in
the preceding that a tenant must raise, as an affirmative defense, that their
failure to pay rent is due to a Covid-19 emergency. Under the Landlord-Tenant
Act, no defenses to an eviction can be raised (such as maintenance issues,
leaks, mold, etc.) unless the tenant pays the unpaid rent into the registry of
the court. Presumably, this condition will not apply if a Covid-19 emergency defense
is raised. If the tenant fails to respond or raise any defenses to the
complaint, the landlord is entitled to the entry of an Order for Tenant
Removal. This Order directs the Clerk of the Court to issue a Writ of
Possession, which directs the sheriff of the county to remove any persons in
possession of the rental property. Once the Writ is issued, the sheriff will
contact the landlord or their agent and schedule a lockout of the property. The
sheriff will post notice of the lockout on the rental property, giving all
occupants 24 hours to vacate.
Because many evictions have been stayed since April 2, 2020,
there is a large backlog of unprocessed cases.
In addition to previously filed cases that were stayed by the initial
Executive Order, the Clerk of Palm Beach County has indicated that an
additional 1,000 eviction cases have been filed since mid-March 2020. This
volume of cases will be difficult for the courts to process and different
judges will interpret Covid-19 emergency defenses differently, resulting in
some tenants being evicted while others will remain without paying any rent. It
is unclear how long it will take to clear this large backlog of evictions.
One issue is the fact that the stay on evictions did not
forgive the payment of rent. The
Executive Order specifically states, “All payments, including tolled payments,
are due when an individual is no longer adversely affected by the COVID-19
emergency.” It is not clear how many
landlords will seek judgment for unpaid rent against tenants but regardless of
their ability to collect on such judgment, it will affect the tenants’ ability
to rent a new home or obtain credit.
However, it appears that once the courts start processing evictions,
there will be many new homeless families who simply can no longer afford rent
at a level prior to the pandemic.
Michael J Posner, Esq., is a partner in Ward, Damon,
Posner, Pheterson & Bleau, P.L. a mid-sized real estate, estate planning
and business-oriented law firm serving all of South Florida, with three offices
in Palm Beach County. They specialize in
residential and commercial real estate and can assist with leases and
evictions. They can be reached at 561.594.1452 or at mjposner@warddamon.com
Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point. You clearly know what youre talking about, why throw away your intelligence on just posting videos to your weblog when you could be giving us something informative to read? California Lender
ReplyDelete