Lawyer: COVID-19 moratorium on evictions is ‘potentially devastating’ to landlords

A lawyer for a group of landlords asked a Suffolk Superior Court judge on Thursday for a preliminary injunction blocking the state’s moratorium on almost all evictions and foreclosures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The economic harm is potentially devastating for my clients,” Rich Vetstein told Judge Paul Wilson. “They can’t afford to pay the mortgages on those houses.”

Vetstein said there are many landlords who already have judgments in their favor, but evictions are now on hold.

Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Greaney argued if a case has been decided, the Legislature cannot change the outcome.

“No landlords’ rights are going to be lost while the moratorium is in place,” she said.

Vetstein said the “remedy of eviction … has been part of Massachusetts common law since colonial days.”

“What we’re talking about here is a total evisceration of that common law right. … It’s the nuclear option,” he said. “You’re literally forcing landlords across the state to provide public housing. … There’s never been such a moratorium in state history.”

Greaney said that because possession is a common law right, the Legislature can make changes to it, particularly in times of emergency. Landlords will still be able to seek recourse once the public health emergency ends, she said.

Joey Michalakes, who represents four tenants’ rights organizations, including City Life/Vida Urbana in Boston, said the mere act of a landlord filing for eviction blacklists tenants from being able to find new housing.

If the court blocks the moratorium, Michalakes said, it will lead to increases in both homelessness and coronavirus infections.

Wilson said he would make a decision at a future date.

Vetstein said his clients also filed a case in federal court that will proceed separately.

Gov. Charlie Baker signed the moratorium into law in April, then extended it last week from an Aug. 18 expiration to an Oct. 17 expiration, saying it was needed to protect vulnerable families who are in financial hardship because of the pandemic.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/33iiCDw