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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Monday announced an interim rule that allows tenants to sue debt collection agencies for violating the national ban on evictions.
Landlord attorneys and other debt collection agencies who falsely evict tenants could also be prosecuted by the federal government and the state, the agency said. In addition, these collection agencies must from now on inform the tenants in writing of their rights under the eviction ban and eviction is notified on the same date.
“No one should be evicted from their home without knowing their rights, and we will hold accountable the collection agencies that continue with illegal evictions,” Dave Uejio, CFPB’s acting director, said in a statement.
The announcement is a sign that the Biden administration plans to more aggressively enforce the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s national ban on evictions, first enacted 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 since the end of June.
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Housing advocates point out that the law has failed to protect many tenants because there are not enough consequences for violating it.
There is no national database of exposures. 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 landlords 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 deportations in the five states and 19 cities it tracks.
“We are still seeing mass evictions even with the CDC order,” Daniel Rose, an organizer at Housing Justice Now in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, told CNBC in December.
Evicting tenants is a last resort, Bob Pinnegar, president of the National Apartment Association, told CNBC earlier this year. However, the past year has pushed landlords to the brink, he said.
“More than 50% of the country’s rental property providers are mom-and-pop owners, relying on their few units as their sole source of income,” he said. “The reserves are running out and in many cases have been exhausted.”
Still, the consumer agency made it clear on Monday that property owners attorneys or other debt collection agencies who illegally or without them notifying tenants of the CDC ban could be prosecuted by federal agencies and public attorneys general, as well as private lawsuits by individuals. . affected.
“The rule directly addresses many of the issues that have undermined the moratorium, including a lack of tenants’ knowledge of rights, abusive practices and minimal to no enforcement,” said Emily Benfer, an eviction expert and visiting law professor at Wake Forest. University.
The agency also shared information on where tenants and landlords can find organizations to apply for the billions of dollars in rental assistance passed along in the latest incentive packages.