COVID-19 Tenant Payment Performance Update through April 2021
We truly hope you appreciate our extra efforts to keep you informed about the COVID impact on tenant rent payment performance. There are a lot of issues outside of our control, but we want to communicate to keep you informed. Please send us any suggestions for what additional information you’d like to see.
Please be sure to share this with anyone you know interested in real estate investing or looking for a better property manager, so they can see what they are missing!
EVICTION UPDATE
CDC Eviction Moratorium: on Wednesday, May 5, 2021, Judge Dabney Friedrich of the US District Court in the District of Columbia ruled that the CDC Eviction Moratorium was unconstitutional!
The bad news, the Justice Department immediately filed an appeal and was granted a stay pending the appeal, so nothing changes for now.
You can read the judge’s ruling here.
While nothing changes for now, this is the best news landlords have had about the Eviction Moratorium in months. We believe that this ruling makes it less likely the Eviction Moratorium will be extended past its current June 30 deadline. Of course, the courts will be overwhelmed once the Eviction Moratorium ends, so it will take months for some landlords to get their day in court. Once nonpaying tenants start getting evicted though, a decent percentage of them will either start paying or move before their court dates – which will still be a “win” for many landlords.
Through perseverance, we were able to carry out three evictions in the month of April! The bailiff for one of the evictions had to call for police backup, the tenant was screaming & physically threatening the bailiff because they didn’t believe they could actually be evicted.
GOVERNMENT AID FOR PAST DUE TENANTS
In the month of April, we received four COVID Emergency Rental Assistance (CERA) checks. Overall, tenants seem to be cooperating more, mostly because of court-appointed attorneys warning them that if they don’t cooperate, they will lose their eviction protection. We’re waiting to see how much is approved for the tenants that haven’t paid rent since March 2020.
Again, the State of Michigan has been allotted $622,794,676 and Macomb County $26,026,830 for CERA. These funds will be disbursed via the Michigan State Housing Department Authority (MSHDA) to local housing agencies as were the last round of funds.
DETROIT EVICTIONS TO REQUIRE CERTIFICATES OF COMPLIANCE (rental inspections)
No further updates on the 36th District Court requiring a valid Certificate of Compliance to prove that a rental property has been inspected and met city inspection requirements. So far, we’ve been getting Possession Judgments without these, but expect it to start being required. To date, the majority of our owner clients are allowing us to have their Detroit rental properties inspected, although the city’s BSEED department is behind on processing them. We’ve recently had tickets on several properties dismissed because we submitted everything required prior to the tickets being issued!
RENT PAYMENT TRENDS – thru April 30, 2021
The number of tenants less than 30 days behind on their rent continues to slowly improve as shown on the graph below. The rest of the numbers also continue to be stable since March.
Macomb County: We took on a few more units with nonpaying tenants, which skewed the “Paid Full Rent” and “Paid Zero Rent” numbers. If we ignore those tenants, the numbers all remained stable. We were able to evict two of the tenants that were paying zero rent.
Oakland County: The numbers continue to improve overall, with a few more tenants completing their Payment Plans and now paying full rent. Unfortunately, we still have a couple of tenants paying zero rent, but were able to evict one of them. Wayne County: Overall, April numbers were fairly stable compared to March.
FAVOR: If you have a property that has seen an improvement in rent delinquencies, please take a moment to give our Delinquencies & Evictions Department a compliment for all their hard work. They spend their days dealing with a lot of negativity from tenants (and some owners), so a bit of positive appreciation from you would go a long way to make their day!
For those of you that have contacted us to explore Cash-for-Keys offers to nonpaying tenants, we hope you appreciate our well-thought-out procedure. We have had some outrageous requests from tenants, but our procedure is designed to account for that and protect you legally.
Again, please refer us to others you know interested in real estate investing or that are looking for a better property manager!
Timeline of Eviction Announcements
March 10, 2020, Executive Order 2020-04: no end date. Declared a state of emergency across the state of Michigan until the COVID-19 threat resolved.
March 10, 2020, Executive Order 2020-19 end date of April 17, 2020.
Temporary suspension of all court-ordered hearings & evictions for nonpayment of rent.
March 23, 2020, Executive Order 2020-21 end date of April 13, 2020.Temporary suspension of all activities not necessary to sustain or protect life (includes real estate related).
April 7, 2020, Executive Order 2020-42 end date of April 30, 2020.Extension of temporary suspension of all activities not necessary to sustain or protect life (includes real estate related).
April 24, 2020, Executive Order 2020-59 end date of May 15, 2020.Extension of temporary suspension of all activities not necessary to sustain or protect life (includes real estate related).
May 1, 2020, Executive Order 2020-67 end date May 28, 2020. Declared a state of emergency across the state of Michigan until the COVID-19 threat resolved.
May 1, 2020, Executive Order 2020-70 end date May 15, 2020. Clarifies temporary suspension of all activities not necessary to sustain or protect life (includes real estate related).
May 15, 2020, Executive Order 2020-85 end date June 11, 2020. Clarifies temporary suspension of all activities not necessary to sustain or protect life (includes real estate related).
May 21, 2020, Executive Order 2020-97 no end date. It allows some businesses to partially reopen with required safeguards.
May 22, 2020, Executive Order 2020-99 extends the end date to June 19, 2020. Extends the COVID-19 State of Emergency until June 19, 2020.
June 1, 2020, Executive Order 2020-110 Allows most businesses to partially reopen with required safeguards by June 8, 2020.
June 5, 2020, Executive Order 2020-114 Allows all businesses to immediately reopen with required safeguards
June 11, 2020, Executive Order 2020-118, extended suspension until June 30th. Extension of temporary suspension of all court-ordered hearings & evictions for nonpayment of rent.
June 26, 2020, Executive Order 2020-134, extended suspension until July 15, 2020.
Extension of temporary suspension of all court-ordered hearings & evictions for nonpayment of rent. Allows for rent payments by Eviction Diversion Program if the tenant can find such a program and qualify for it, but this would also extend suspension until July 30, 2020.
July 16, 2020, 36th District Court Announcement, Eviction Moratorium until August 15, 2020Pertains to Detroit eviction cases only.
September 4, 2020, CDC Declaration, Nationwide Eviction Moratorium until December 31, 2020
Nationwide suspension of evictions for nonpayment of rent if tenants sign a declaration form.
December 28, 2020, The Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021, extends Eviction Moratorium until December 31, 2020
Nationwide suspension of evictions for nonpayment of rent if tenants sign a declaration form.
January 29, 2021, CDC Declaration, Nationwide Eviction Moratorium until March 31, 2021
Nationwide suspension of evictions for nonpayment of rent if tenants sign a declaration form.
March 6, 2021 Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act passes and creates COVID Emergency Relief Act.
March 29, 2012, CDC announces extension of Eviction Moratorium through June 30.
May 5, 2021 CDC Eviction Moratorium ruled unconstitutional (here), but immediately appealed and stayed.
Image courtesy of Burst