Landlords appeal to US Supreme Court to end eviction moratorium

According to The Hill’s latest update we’re at an impasse. The Alabama Association of Realtors is now asking the Supreme Court to decide on the eviction matter.

The landlords make their case:

“As the district court recognized, its stay will prolong the severe financial burdens borne by landlords under the moratorium for the past nine months. Landlords have been losing over $13 billion every month under the moratorium, and the total effect of the CDC’s overreach may reach up to $200 billion if it remains in effect for a year. And due to the government’s sovereign immunity, its inability to provide timely rental assistance, and the judgment-proof nature of the tenants covered by the moratorium, that massive wealth transfer (and accompanying government sanctioned unlawful occupation of property) will never be fully undone.”

It was last month that a DC Federal Judge struck down an eviction moratorium that was first established by the Trump administration last year. Back when the Coronavirus pandemic started, it was decided that one of the motions in the federal government’s power was preventing renter people from getting kicked out by landlords.

It was something that the Biden administration extended when his administration took over the White House earlier this year. The nitty gritty involved was simple. Tenants can’t be kicked out if they demonstrate they made a best effort to find other accommodations and couldn’t do so sufficiently, in time (and often have to prove to a court as much).

The bottom line being, the eviction moratorium was set to expire on June 30th. Yet, because the Biden administration is appealing against this decision, proceedings will likely litigate beyond the end of the month.

Judge Dabney Friedrich agreed to delay the ruling in the meantime. This “coalition of landlords” failed to compel a federal appeals court in Washington DC to change minds on this particular matter. In fact, the panel of judges sided with the Department of Health and Human Services argument that America is still getting people vaccinated, currently, and therefore evictions can’t resume just yet.

As described by The New York Times, there have been funding efforts to fill in the backlog of payments to both renters and landlords alike. However, like all things that come out of the US government the plan there isn’t perfect either.