Published by REALTOR Magazine | June 3, 2021
After appeals court retains stay on nationwide eviction moratorium, plaintiffs announce plan to file petition with Supreme Court.
Plaintiffs in a lawsuit seeking to end the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s nationwide eviction moratorium said they’ll take their case to the Supreme Court.
The moratorium is set to expire June 30 if there are no further extensions, but it has faced a growing number of legal challenges from housing providers. In early May, the U.S. District Court judge from the District of Columbia vacated the CDC moratorium, calling it an overreach of authority. But the U.S. Department of Justice appealed the ruling, and the district court issued a stay pending that appeal. On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled against a motion by the plaintiffs seeking to vacate the stay. The plaintiffs in the case include the Alabama and Georgia REALTOR® associations, two housing providers, and their property management companies.
As a result of the moratorium and other protections put in place as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many property owners have not received rent payments from tenants in months—in some cases, over a year—putting a strain on their finances and their ability to maintain their properties. The longer the moratorium continues, the bigger the problem will be for both housing providers and tenants, who are required to pay all owed rent when it ends.
