Wondering how the COVID-19 Tenant Relief Act of 2020 affects eviction moratoriums?
On August 31st, 2020 Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 3088 into law. The new law gives broad protection from eviction for tenants who are financially affected by Covid-19 and as a result can't pay rent between March 1st, 2020 and January 31st, 2021. It also gives just cause protections that were established in AB 1482 to all properties through January 31st, 2021.
I’m not going to go through all the details of the law because there is literally a flow chart required to understand the law but in general CTRA prevents a landlord from evicting a tenant for non payment of rent that came due between March 1st, 2020 and August 31,st 2020 if the tenant gives the landlord some sort of proof their finances have been affected by coronavirus. There is also part of the law related to high income tenants. Tenants that fall under the category of high income which is defined as one hundred thirty percent of median income can also be required to provide proof of a coronavirus hardship. Also, tenants can’t be evicted for non payment of rent that came due between September 1st, 2020 and January 31st, 2021. So it’s confusing to me the way the law is written because there are two time frames mentioned but essentially the law relates to unpaid rent for the timeframe between March 1st, 2020 and January 31st, 2021. Landlords can’t evict for unpaid rent during that period of time, but the tenant needs to do two things.
1. The tenant needs to provide the landlord with proof their finances have been affected by coronavirus pandemic
2. By January 31st, 2021 the tenant needs to pay 25% of the rental payments due between September 1st, 2020 and January 31st, 20 that were missed because of Covid-19.
Also landlords are required to give an informational document to anyone who as of September 1st, 2020 has missed one or more payments that came due between March 1st, 2020 and August 31st, 2020. Also it requires the landlord to give a fifteen day notice instead of a 3 day notice for any unpaid rent between March 1st, 2020 and January 31st, 2021. The fifteen days doesn’t include Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. The just cause evictions from the tenant protection act AB1482 are extended to all tenants until February 1st, 2021.
Any unlawful detainer actions also known as evictions for unpaid rent between September 1st, 2020 and January 31st, 2021 is prohibited until February 1st, 2021. The process to collect unpaid rent for the period between March 1st, 2020 and January 31st, 2021 is to go to small claims court and the normal small claims court limits don’t apply. The cases can be filed starting March 2nd, 2021. There’s been a lot of news lately about eviction moratoriums so I hope this information can help you. My goal is to help landlords so if you ever have a property management question don’t hesitate to contact us.
