Moratorium on evictions extended

But hundreds of cases already have been filed

Since Gov. Ron DeSantis quietly changed the wording of Florida’s eviction moratorium, landlords in Orange County have filed hundreds of cases to remove tenants, outpacing the entirety of filings that streamed into the court from April to July when a stricter ban on evictions was in place.

DeSantis extended the emergency moratorium Monday night until Oct. 1, less than four hours before it was set to expire. The governor has often waited until the 11th hour to announce extensions.

The amended moratorium went into effect Aug. 1 and since then, County Judge Eric Dubois said, 471 evictions have been filed

in Orange. From April to July, there were 372.

Landlords in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties filed 2,170 evictions cases between Aug. 1 and Aug. 27, also far more than in any of the four prior months.

The increases came after DeSantis narrowed the state’s moratorium to suspend only the “final action at the conclusion of an eviction proceeding” and solely for tenants who have been “adversely affected by the COVID-19 emergency.” The order, first imposed April 2, had previously been written to halt “any statute providing for an eviction cause of action,” although some landlords tried to toss out tenants anyways.

Housing attorneys said the change essentially gave landlords the green light to start filing cases, although it did provide a defense for tenants to raise if they can prove they were financially hurt by the pandemic and resulting economic shutdowns. DuBois said he is not aware of a judge siding with the landlord of any tenant who has raised that defense.

DeSantis previously told reporters that he believed the amended order “covers the core group of people that we’re looking to protect” and ensures Floridians who haven’t been impacted still “meet your obligations.”

The Orange and Seminole counties sheriff’s offices said they’ve respectively served 48 and 11 writs of possession, the final step in removing a tenant after they’ve lost their case. A spokeswoman for the Seminole office said all of the papers served were either for commercial evictions, which are not suspended under DeSantis’ order or residential evictions for things other than rent.

The Orange sheriff’s office said all of the writs it’s served so far were processed before the initial moratorium was implemented.

Additionally, DuBois said courts in Orange and Osceola County have interpreted the order to mean that tenants who assert they’ve lost their job or been financially impacted in other ways don’t have to pay the rent they owe to the courts. Florida law usually mandates that if tenants can’t pay the court within just five days, “the landlord is entitled to an immediate default judgment for removal of the tenant.”

In the case of one Orlando resident, a judge denied the landlord’s request to evict seeing that the woman had, in fact, lost her job back in March and has been unable to find any new work. She said she planned to apply for Orange County’s eviction diversion program to help her pay the landlord the $3,000 in back rent she owes.

In a letter submitted to the court, the woman wrote, “Please find it in your heart to help me. I’m praying in looking for a job.”

In another case, a woman submitted an email from her husband’s boss who confirmed the company he worked for “had to dramatically reduce hours of each employee” and “as soon as business returns to normal we hope to have him working his normal hours.” Initially, a judge ruled to ignore the evidence, but that was later found to be a clerical error.

Jamos “Jay” Mobley, a senior housing attorney with Orange County’s Legal Aid Society, is helping the clients in both of those cases. He said his office is handling about 10 new cases a day.

He credited Orange County’s diversion program, which launched last week, with helping to stave off more filings. For comparison, DuBois said in August 2019 there were 1,061 eviction cases filed in Orange County.

As of Monday, the diversion program had received 1,223 applications from tenants and 444 from landlords. Kelly Finkelstein, a spokeswoman for the county, said the Orange County Bar Association had spoken with 169 landlords of the tenants who applied, and about 84% of them were interested in going through the program rather than taking disputes to court.

471 evictions have been filed in Orange in August. From April to July, there were 372.

The program, funded by federal CARES money, was designed for residents who are at least two months behind in rent because of income losses related to the virus and who can pay rent going forward for the next 60 days. If the landlord and tenant both agree, the county will directly pay landlords up to $4,000 in exchange for them agreeing to drop the eviction and waive any remaining unpaid rent.

Stout, a global research firm, predicts that 749,000 Florida households — nearly half of all rental units — are at risk of eviction over the next four months. The nonprofit Florida Bar Foundation estimated that 530,000 eviction filings could follow the moratorium’s expiration.

Note: Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida (1-800-405-1417) and the Legal Aid Society of the Orange County Bar Association (407-841-8310) provide free legal services to low-income Floridians for civil matters, including housing.