Hello everyone, this is Juan Carlos Gastelum. I am a real estate investor in Texas and president of One Way Properties, and today we’re going to discuss what happened to the eviction moratorium that was set to expire on July 31st 2021.
On August 3rd, the CDC issued an emergency order titled, Temporary Halt in Residential Evictions in Communities with Substantial or High Levels of Community Transmission of COVID-19 to prevent the further spread of COVID-19. What does this mean? This means that for two months from August 3rd to October 3rd, 2021, the Eviction Moratorium will continue.
Now, there have been five main criteria for non paying tenants in order to receive the benefit of the moratorium. The criteria is 1) to have used their best efforts to obtain government assistance for housing, 2) those renters who are unable to pay their full rent due to substantial loss of income, 3) those who are making their best efforts to make timely partial payments of rent, 4) those who would become homeless to have to move into a shared living setting, if they were to be evicted, and 5) those who reside in a US county experiencing substantial or high rates of community transmission levels of COVID-19 as defined by the CDC. This entails that by discretion, the CDC has determined which counties are presenting the highest transmission rate of COVID-19.
For renters, this means that they have to fit within these five criteria in order to benefit from the Eviction Moratorium, which by the way, cannot be applied retroactively. For investors, this means that they have to take certain measures to ensure that they get the right tenant in their property. Those measures include doing proper screening, whether doing it on their own, whether doing it through a broker-agent, or doing it through a property management company. Every investor needs to make sure that their qualifying tenants fit the proper criteria for paying rent. This doesn’t mean that they’re safeguarded against unemployment or that further down the line the tenant may fit within the Eviction Moratorium criteria. Investor taking proper measures to screen tenants can have a second layer of control and safeguard against tenants who fit the Eviction Moratorium criteria.
If you’re an investor, our tip for today is to take the time and do the proper screening so that you can ensure the tenant has the capacity to pay rent in the upcoming months. If you’re doing this through a third party, whether a leasing agent or broker or a third party property manager, make sure that you demand from them that they do proper screening.
That’s it for now. So take care, and best wishes on your real estate journey!
God bless!
