Property owners dispute claims of eviction wave

Despite government efforts to halt evictions, legal aid organizations say they have seen an uptick in what they term nuisance evictions, intended to circumvent pandemic-related legislation.

But according to Daniel Yukelson, executive director at the Apartment Association of

Greater Los Angeles, said the moratoriums have created financial havoc for rental housing providers. Rental property owners and tenants are in many ways in the same boat, he said.

He added that the claim of a wave of evictions is overblown.

"Notices are nothing but pieces of paper," Yukelson said. "There's no wave of eviction cases. You can't file eviction cases for non-payment due to COVID. They're just trying to paint the world as black as they can, as negatively as possible. They're trying to create panic because what they want at the end of the day is rent forgiveness."

Statewide eviction moratoriums are slated to expire at the end of the month, and some efforts have already been made to extend them. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to extend its moratorium from Jan. 31 to Feb. 28.

Currently under debate is a bill, AB 15, intended to clarify some of the protections in the original moratorium legislation, AB 3088, by defining "COVID-19 rental debt" as "unpaid rent or any other unpaid financial obligation of a tenant that came due" between March 1, 2020 and Dec. 31, 2021.

But the new laws have not gone far enough, said Barbara J. Schultz, director of litigation and policy at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. She said her organization has seen an increase in general harassment cases from landlords leading to what she called illegal lockouts.

"Somewhat understandably, landlords are very frustrated because we're in a period of time where it's a lot harder for them than usual to evict the tenants," Schultz said. "Usually it is extremely easy to evict the tenants. Now there are some greater protections, so they are unfortunately resorting to harassing tenants to get them out. Sometimes they'll do things like turn off utilities and some will even lock out tenants without a court order."

Other legal aid organizations say they have seen similar situations, where tenants receive eviction notices for exercising on the premises or for smoking indoors.

Ugochi L. Anaebere-Nicholson, directing attorney at Public Law Center in Orange County, said that her organization represents a tenant who received an eviction notice for having a dog on the premises. Many rental contracts prohibit dogs and other pets.

"That's the reason for the eviction and you're sitting there, like, 'really, in a national pandemic, this is what you're choosing to do,'" Anaebere-Nicholson said.

A report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia from October estimated that 239,619 California households would be behind in their rent, owing a total of $1.67 billion by the end of December.

Yukelson said that he expects the Legislature to extend statewide moratoriums despite the hardship property owners are facing.

"Many of our members have lost full-time jobs, many of them have contracted the virus themselves or are caring for family members that contracted the virus," Yukelson said. "But they are not receiving anything in the way of government benefits to keep them afloat."

But according to Anaebere-Nicholson, the scales are tilted in favor of landlords, as they often come to court prepared with lawyers.

She said that 90% of the landlords have attorney representation, where about maybe 10 to 15% of the tenants who are going into eviction court have representation." She quoted numbers provided by the Eviction Lab at Princeton University.

A study from 2010 published in the Seattle Journal for Social Justice found that tenants represented by attorneys were 4.4 times more likely to retain possession of their apartments than similar tenants who were not represented. Tenants were also more than twice as likely to retain control than similar tenants who received limited-scope representation.