Non-payment Evictions Put On Maintain Till Tenant RAFT Purposes Are Denied/Authorized
Ignoring robust opposition from property house owners, the Legislature and Gov. Healey have re-enacted a Covid-19 period tenant safety legislation (Chapter 257 of the Acts of 2020) which places an indefinite maintain on any non-payment eviction the place the tenant has utilized for rental help (RAFT) till such time as the appliance is accepted or denied. This was a part of the FY24 finances signed by Gov. Healey in early August, and fell underneath the radar of many people within the rental property group.
Because the saying goes, justice delayed is justice denied. The web impact of this reenacted coverage shall be delay, delay, delay for all landlords submitting non-payment of hire eviction instances, on high of the already hefty delay brought on by the pandemic backlog of instances. When this legislation was initially put in place in 2020, landlords noticed their time in court docket triple, based on Housing Courtroom statistics. We are able to count on that to stay the identical, and even worse.
Much more problematic, the restrict for RAFT help in any 12 month interval has been lowered to $7,000 — barely sufficient to cowl just a few months hire within the Larger Boston space. Most housing suppliers don’t begin evictions till tenants are behind a number of months, so by the point they get to court docket, arrearages are usually within the many 1000’s, and sometimes effectively over the $7,000 cap. Moreover, understaffed state businesses dealing with RAFT purposes could be hit and miss. Throughout the pandemic, tens of 1000’s of rental help purposes “timed out” with out clarification. Tenants will have the ability to additional drag out the eviction course of, leading to many landlords being compelled to barter enormous unpaid hire concessions simply to achieve again possession of their items. I see this in court docket each day.
The “new” Chapter 257 legislation gives as follows:
In an motion for abstract course of for nonpayment of hire, a court docket having jurisdiction over stated motion for abstract course of shall:
(i) grant a continuance for a interval because the court docket could deem simply and affordable if, both on the time the reply is well timed filed or on the date the trial is scheduled to start: (1) the tenancy is being terminated solely for non-payment of hire for a residential dwelling unit; (2) the non-payment of hire was because of a monetary hardship; and (3) the defendant demonstrates, to the satisfaction of the court docket, a pending software for emergency rental help; offered, nonetheless, the court docket could take into account any meritorious counterclaim introduced in stated motion for abstract course of;
(ii) challenge a keep of execution on a judgment for possession if the necessities in clauses (1) to (3), inclusive, of paragraph (i) are met; and
(iii) not enter a judgment or challenge an execution earlier than the appliance for emergency rental help has been accepted or denied.
The “new” Chapter 257 solely applies to non-payment instances; it doesn’t apply to no-fault, for trigger, or put up foreclosures instances. The legislation additionally incorporates some language which might enable a landlord to problem whether or not the nonpayment of hire is definitely because of a legit monetary hardship. This is able to probably require some kind of evidentiary listening to. I’ll preserve you knowledgeable as to any additional developments with the brand new Chapter 257.
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