Florida Realtors is suing the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a bid to get relief from what the group calls an unlawful nationwide moratorium on evictions put in place during the coronavirus pandemic.
The trade association and Gulfport real estate professional R.W. Caldwell filed the federal complaint in the Middle District of Florida in Tampa to seek redress for the financial burdens the moratorium has placed on landlords since Sept. 4, 2020.
“Like forcing employers to continue paying wages to persons who no longer work for them, the eviction moratorium prohibits landlords from removing tenants who no longer pay rent to occupy a residence,” the May 17 complaint states.
The lawsuit calls the provisions of the moratorium “terrorizing,” citing its inclusion of criminal penalties of up to $250,000. Because the eviction ban allows tenants who lost jobs or financial resources during the pandemic to remain in their homes without paying rent, the result amounts to a taking without any adequate reimbursement, the complaint states.
“For more than a year, we have endured the COVID-19 pandemic and heard from struggling property owners, many who have gone without any assistance or rent relief under the eviction moratorium,” Margy Grant, the Florida Realtors CEO, told the Florida Record in an email. “In many cases, leases have expired and units cannot be re-rented. Private property rights must be restored.”
The moratorium is scheduled to expire on June 30, but Florida Realtors said the prospect that the federal agency may extend the eviction ban, as it did in March, is alarming to landlords in the state.
“The CDC’s order does not relieve landlords from their obligations to pay property taxes, make their own mortgage payments on rental properties, or provide maintenance and upkeep necessary to comply with applicable laws or regulations,” the complaint says.
And although tenants’ obligations to pay their rent are technically delayed rather than relieved, the lawsuit contends renters in this situation may often be judgment-proof, making such debts difficult to collect. Losses for Florida landlords may reach the tens of millions of dollars, the complaint states.
The CDC has based its authority to put the moratorium in place on efforts to prevent the interstate spread of COVID-19, but the agency offers no evidence that the moratorium has curbed the spread of the virus, according to the lawsuit.
“... The CDC’s eviction moratorium is, on multiple statutory and constitutional grounds, an unlawful and invalid exercise of government authority and therefore should be set aside,” the complaint says.