Moratoriums on Residential and Commercial Evictions

NEW STATE AND FEDERAL EVICTION MORATORIUMS:

The City of Pico Rivera’s moratorium on evictions due to non-payment of rent related to financial impacts from COVID-19 expired on Sept. 1, 2020, the latest date allowed under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order. However, a new California law – the Tenant, Homeowner, and Small Landlord Relief and Stabilization Act of 2020 – enacted a statewide eviction moratorium for residential tenants, and the federal Centers for Disease Control also ordered a national residential eviction moratorium to prevent crowding in homes, which could lead to further spread of the coronavirus.

California Eviction Moratorium: No residential tenant can be evicted before Feb. 1, 2021, as a result of rent owed due to a COVID-19 related hardship accrued March 4 to Aug. 31, 2020, if the tenant provides a declaration of hardship according to the legislation’s timelines. For a COVID-19 related hardship that accrues between Sept. 1, 2020 and Jan. 31, 2021, tenants must also pay at least 25 percent of the rent due to avoid eviction. Tenants are still responsible for paying unpaid amounts to landlords, but those unpaid amounts cannot be the basis for an eviction. The legislation also extends anti-foreclosure protections in the Homeowner Bill of Rights to small landlords.

More information and declaration forms are available here.

Federal Eviction Moratorium: The Centers for Disease Control ordered a temporary halt in residential evictions to prevent the further spread of COVID-19 through Dec. 31, 2020. Tenants must provide an executed copy of a declaration form (or a similar declaration under penalty of perjury) to their landlord, owner of the residential property where they live, or other person who has a right to have them evicted or removed from where they live.

More information is here.