USA TODAY International Edition
SKIRTING EVICTION BANS
Landlords use intimidation, tricks to oust renters despite federal, state moratoriums
Cash- strapped renters nationwide say their landlords tried to skirt COVID- 19 eviction moratoriums by changing locks, removing trash containers so waste piled up and – in one case – attempting to unbolt the front door right off an apartment.
They told state attorneys general that they were kicked out of their homes after landlords accused them of violating tenant rules, like smoking cigarettes inside their units or failing to take the hitches off of their mobile homes.
Like Heidi Stach, who lost her job because of the pandemic and fell behind on rent, they assumed they were protected. But Stach says her landlord found an end- run to Wisconsin’s eviction ban: Instead of starting a court process, he sent her a notice to vacate this summer because he was not renewing her lease.
That type of informal or “extrajudicial” eviction is a workaround to the patchwork of emergency state and federal rules created this year to prevent landlords from ejecting tenants into unstable or crowded living arrangements during the health emergency.
What once was a fringe concern has be
“I wasn’t even two months late on my rent. They started harassing me on a daily basis. It was scary. It got really ugly.” Tasha Tavenner Former tenant at LaGrand Lodges in Missouri
come a quiet scourge nationwide, said Eric Dunn, director of litigation at the National Housing Law Project, feeding housing instability concerns among the millions who’ve missed rent payments.
“Since the pandemic started, and courts froze their dockets or had moratoriums, we’ve seen a huge spike in tactics from landlords to get people out,” he said, “including changing locks, cutting off utility service, refusing to make repairs, making threats, providing misinformation and any other creative way to accuse someone of a lease violation that fits an exception in the moratorium.”
Tricks and intimidation behind the scenes add to more overt efforts by landlords to legally evict tenants. With statewide bans largely expired and federal protection from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention moratorium nearing its final days, tenant advocates fear things will only get worse.
USA TODAY reviewed hundreds of complaints about landlords filed through the summer by consumers with attorneys general in seven states, including Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, Washington state and Wisconsin.
Landlords, they told the state agencies, hiked rents even as the tenants lost their jobs and missed utility bill payments. They skipped out on basic maintenance and let conditions deteriorate, leaving renters a choice between leaving on their own or living with mold outbreaks or infestations of bed bugs, roaches and maggots.
While the complaints offer a window into the problem, tenants often found their efforts to enlist state help went nowhere since wrongful evictions typically must be fought in court.
Stach, the mother of a 15- year- old daughter with disabilities, came up short in April on her $ 850 rent. Her lease was up but she assumed she could renew it. Instead, she came home to the notice to vacate.
“It was devastating. I was confused and crying and felt like I was having a panic attack,” Stach said. “I lost my job and now I had to basically beg someone to let us live somewhere else instead of a homeless shelter.”
Her previous landlord at Reliant Real Estate Services said he couldn’t discuss specific tenants but he said none had faced non- renewals or eviction proceedings since late spring. He added that those with looming lease expirations can negotiate move- out dates or
month- to- month extensions.
“Evictions and lease non- renewals are never a desired outcome,” Reliant President Aaron Wickesburg wrote in an email. “We will continue to do whatever we can to help keep our tenants in their homes.”
Bans, moratoriums full of holes
Eviction moratoriums under the federal CARES Act expired on July 25. Many state bans also ended over the summer, or in the fall. The remaining CDC order, enacted Sept. 4, has a simple goal: prevent evictions for non- payment of rent during the pandemic. But the CDC’s rules are full of exemptions and tricky legal definitions, leaving openings for unscrupulous landlords.
The current CDC order, set to expire Dec. 31, specifies that evictions for nonpayment of rent can be prevented if renters fill out a form declaring that they make less than $ 99,000, are trying to make partial payments and would likely be homeless if evicted. Rent still accrues and is due eventually.
The CDC order comes with criminal penalties, but neither the agency nor the U. S. Department of Justice answered questions on whether a single landlord has been prosecuted.
The order also offers five other reasons evictions can move forward: criminal activity, threats to other residents, damage to property, violation of building codes or violation of any other aspect of a lease.
Dunn said landlords can find subtle ways to use those exemptions to evict a nonpaying renter, say when adding a satellite dish turns out to be a lease violation, or when a boyfriend stays over
more nights than allowed in the guest portion of the lease. Non- renewals of leases that lead to eviction are a gray area in the CDC order.
Self- help eviction history
Extrajudicial or “self- help” evictions, in which landlords take matters into their own hands, date back to Roman law. They were part of English common law and then barred by U. S. courts to quell violence. Today they refer to any method outside the legal court process.
While self- help removals are by their nature impossible to measure, the usual number of court evictions offers a hint of the tsunami some advocates fear could be coming, obscured by the various COVID- 19 restrictions.
The National Housing Law Project estimates about 900,000 legal judicial evictions take place in the U. S. each year. Research by the Eviction Lab at Princeton University indicates that, on average across 26 tracked cities, eviction filings have dropped by more than half during the pandemic but now are steadily increasing.
Tenants facing an extrajudicial situation have few options, especially if their belongings are locked away by a landlord or they can’t afford legal help.
Renters become homeless
USA TODAY’s review of complaints filed with various state attorneys general shows landlords across the country attempted to raise rents on financially struggling tenants, and then turned to extreme measures to evict them when they could not pay.
In Missouri, residents of a shuttered nine- hole golf resort that was converted into apartments say their landlord tripled rents, threatened them with eviction and had them work under the table to repair the derelict units to pay off their debts.
The former timeshare property had been neglected for years, with mold growing on stairs, ceilings and curtains. Residents complained to the state about holes in the walls and floor, where roaches, ants and bed bugs scurried.
When LaGrand Lodges tenant Tasha Tavenner couldn’t pay rent, two men attempted to pull the front door off its hinges until she called the police, according to her handwritten complaint.
The single mother had been laid off from her job at a resort in Branson when tourism froze up from coronavirus. With no money coming in amid the threats of rent increases, she tried to work out a deal where she would help fix the deteriorating units, including ripping out carpets and tearing down walls.
With kids ages 2, 8, 12 and 15, Tavenner decided that she couldn’t take it anymore. They left in May, she said, and camped in the woods for five weeks until they could find a new place to stay. “I wasn’t even two months late on my rent. They started harassing me on a daily basis. It was scary. It got really ugly.”
Across the country, landlords evicted their tenants over unapproved guests, pets and other alleged violations to various apartment rules. One blind man in Ohio lived on the streets following a dispute with his landlords over smoking cigarettes inside the unit.
Yet most consumers who spoke with USA TODAY said that their attorneys general were ultimately unable to help. State regulators can act as mediators in disputes, but challenges to evictions are often only successful in court.
In Ohio, David Whipple, 64, complained to the attorney general after the Wellness Village affordable housing complex for seniors in Canton sent him a notice of eviction in February, a month before the national moratorium began.
The facility claimed to have found ashes from cigarettes in the bathroom, and workers said they could smell smoke near the unit. It accused Whipple of violating its rules. Whipple’s complaint also alleges he was charged late fees for rent for several months even though he paid his $ 651 rent on time.
Reached by USA TODAY, Whipple acknowledged he smoked a cigarette but said staff continued to accuse him of breaking the rules. “They kicked out a senior citizen during COVID- 19 like they didn’t have a care in the world,” he said. “I didn’t deserve what they did to me.”