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The COVID-19 pandemic has affected everyone in some form or another. It’s stressful whether you’re an executive of a Fortune 500 company, a small business owner, or an employee just trying to make ends meet in these unprecedented and unpredictable times. If you’re a landlord, your stress load may be even worse due to the moratorium on evictions. When it was in effect, it was vital that you understood what this moratorium did and what actions you could take to keep your rental properties active and generate income. Now that most eviction moratoriums have expired, it helps to have a trash removal partner like Junk King on your side so you can get vacant rentals back on the market quickly.
The Federal Eviction Moratorium
When Congress passed the CARES Act in March of 2020, one of the most important items in the act was to pause all evictions until July 2020. This meant that those who had lost their jobs or lost a substantial amount of income due to closed businesses could not lose their housing. This came early in the pandemic when non-essential businesses were closing for lockdown.
This eviction moratorium went into effect on March 27, 2020. It stated that qualified tenants couldn’t be evicted from properties during the moratorium. Landlords could also not file eviction notices until 30 days after the end of the moratorium, nor could banks file for foreclosure on any property. The end date was set as July 24, which means no evictions could be filed until August 23, 2020.
According to the bill, a qualified tenant was anyone who was renting a property that was associated with any type of federal funding or assistant program. This means if you, as the landlord, had purchased the property with a federally backed loan or were enrolled in any type of federally funded assistant program, you were subject to the moratorium. Experts estimated that this applied to anywhere from a quarter to almost half of all rental properties across the country.
The CDC Extensions Changed the Rules
When the CARES Act eviction moratorium expired on July 24, the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stepped in and implemented their own moratorium. They cited a section of the Public Health Service Act to do so. This was legally challenged, but the Supreme Court upheld the moratorium.
This moratorium applied to any tenant who met specific criteria. Those who made under a certain income level and had made a good-faith effort to receive rental assistance from the government could file paperwork asking for eviction protection.
The CDC eviction and foreclosure moratorium was extended several times. The most recent extension was made on August 3, 2021, following the previous extension expiring July 31. This extension was planned to expire on October 3. However, the Supreme Court heard arguments to overturn the moratorium and did just that on August 26, 2021. This decision ended the federal eviction moratorium for landlords and tenants.
Eviction in Texas
Following the end of the federal moratorium on August 26, evictions in Texas resumed. While there’s no state-level halt on evictions, numerous resources are available for landlords and tenants. One such eviction and foreclosure resource was the Texas Eviction Diversion Program. Landlords and tenants were able to request assistance for rent and utility bills. However, there was a maximum amount of funds for this program, and applications are no longer accepted as of December 14, 2021.
Other Eviction and Foreclosure Resources
As a landlord, you don’t want to give any tenant an eviction notice. Evicting tenants can be a long, troublesome legal effort, and it costs money. Fortunately, there are both foreclosure resources and assistance for landlords and tenants. These resources can help your tenants pay rent, and some may even assist you directly.
However, there are going to be cases where you have to evict a tenant, just like there were before the pandemic. Some tenants may have damaged the home beyond repair or were constantly late in paying rent even when they were working full-time. If you have to handle an eviction, it’s vital that you consult with an attorney to make certain you do everything legally. While the federal moratorium on evictions has ended, for now, the COVID-19 crisis is still ongoing. It’s possible another moratorium may be imposed at the state or federal level. You want to make certain that you’re complying with all current laws and regulations if you have to evict someone.
Dealing with an Eviction
If you have had to evict a client, you have to be ready for what they will do to your property. Tenants who are being evicted may no longer care about respecting the property, and some may intentionally damage it or even steal things from the property. Landlords have walked into properties after evicting the tenants to find appliances, and light fixtures have been taken and sold. In extreme cases, angry tenants may even strip the copper wires out of the walls.
In other instances, however, these evicted tenants don’t take things. Instead, they leave things. They may simply stop taking out the garbage, so you have to deal with it. They might unplug the refrigerator, so the food in it expires. Other times, they may take what they want and leave behind the rest of their possessions, including furniture. You never know what you’re going to walk into when you evict someone from a rental property.
What Do You Do with this Junk?
If someone leaves property behind, you do need to make certain you understand your legal obligations. You may need to notify the tenants, hold their possessions for a certain amount of time, and follow other regulations. That doesn’t mean you have to let their expired food remain in the refrigerator or the garbage bags stay where they are. However, for a property that is obviously not trashed, you do need to make an attempt to notify the tenant. You may also want to include a section on abandoned property in your leases. Be certain to run your lease by a lawyer to make certain they are legally sound and consult with an expert in Texas landlord-tenant laws before you dispose of a tenant’s property.
Call Junk King Katy to Help with Junk Removal
If you’ve followed the law and the tenant never contacts you or returned for their items, you need to get rid of them. In many cases, there’s nothing you want to actually keep. That’s when you can call on us. Junk King is one of the top junk removal services in Katy, and we’re ready to help you clean out your rental properties. You can’t begin making repairs or finding new tenants until all this junk is gone, so you need a junk removal team you can count on.
You don’t have to worry about anything when you hire us to remove trash and other items from a property. You don’t need to move the furniture out of the home or even put it all in one room. Just point out what you need us to take, and we’ll handle the rest.
What We Take
Our junk removal team can take just about anything. The only thing we cannot deal with is hazardous waste. We can haul away large pieces of furniture and appliances, including hot tubs, and we will take televisions and other electronics. Of course, we also take bagged-up garbage and yard waste. If you’ve been doing some renovations to the home, we can even haul away your construction waste for you. Our large trucks are capable of hauling away a large amount of stuff at once, so we can often do everything in one load.
Donations and Recycling
Junk King firmly believes in protecting the environment and reducing our impact on the planet. To that end, we recycle or donate everything that we can. When you hire us for our clean-out services, you don’t need to sort out recyclables or items that are still in good condition. We will do that after we’ve picked everything up. If it’s something in good condition, we will send it to one of our local donation partners. Often, foreclosure and eviction furniture is still usable, and we want to make certain it continues to be used instead of going to a landfill.
Let Us Help You Get Your Rental Properties Back on the Market
When your rental properties are empty, they’re a drain on your resources. While evicting tenants does put you in that position, sometimes it’s the only real option you have. Now that the eviction moratorium is over, you may have to take this step in order to get a property back. Once you do, Junk King is here to offer our clean out services. We will get your rental properties emptied out so you can make repairs and updates before finding a new tenant.
We offer free, no-obligation estimates for all jobs. Simply give us a call at 1-888-888-JUNK or send us a text to 1-737-888-5865 to discuss your junk removal needs.
