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The Office of Consumer Financial Protection announced on Monday a provisional rule that will allow tenants to sue debt collectors who violate the national ban on evictions.
Landlord attorneys and other debt collectors who mistakenly evict tenants could also face federal and state lawsuits, the office said. In addition, these debt collectors must now notify tenants in writing of their rights under the written eviction ban and on the same date an eviction is notified.
“No one should be evicted from their home without understanding their rights and we will hold accountable debt collectors to move forward with illegal evictions,” CFPB Acting Director Dave Uejio said in a statement.
The announcement is a signal that the Biden administration plans to enforce more aggressively the national ban on eviction from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, first published by the Trump administration in September.
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With coronavirus cases and unemployment rates still high, President Joe Biden has extended the moratorium until the end of June.
Research has shown that evictions lead to a significant number of coronavirus cases and deaths in one area.
Housing advocates point out that the law has not protected many tenants because there have not been enough consequences for violating it.
There is no national expulsion database. But since the CDC ban went into effect, Jim Baker, executive director of the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, has counted more than 57,000 new eviction cases filed by corporate owners in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, Tennessee and Texas alone. During the same period, The Eviction Lab at Princeton University has identified more than 218,000 evictions in the five states and 19 cities it tracks.
“We still see mass evictions, even with the CDC order,” Daniel Rose, an organizer of Housing Justice Now in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, told CNBC.
Evicting tenants is the last resort, Bob Pinnegar, president of the National Apartment Association, told CNBC earlier this year. However, the past year has driven homeowners to the brink, he said.
“More than 50% of the nation’s rental housing providers are family-owned, relying on their few units as the sole source of income,” he said. “Reserves are running out and, in many cases, running out.”
However, the consumer office made it clear Monday that property owners’ attorneys or other debt collectors who evict tenants illegally or without informing them of the CDC ban could be prosecuted by of federal and state general tax agencies, as well as private demands from impacted individuals.
“The rule directly addresses many of the issues that undermined the moratorium, including tenants’ lack of knowledge about rights, abusive practices, and minimal or no enforcement, ”said Emily Benfer, an eviction expert and visiting law professor. Wake Forest University.
The office also shared information on where tenants and landlords can find organizations to apply for the billions of dollars in rental aid approved in the latest stimulus packages.