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7 min readNov 20, 2020

Landlords skirt COVID-19 eviction bans, using intimidation and tricks to boot tenants,

Cash-strapped renters nationwide say their landlords tried to skirt COVID-19 eviction moratoriums by changing locks, removing trash containers so waste piled up and — in one case — attempting to unbolt the front door right off an apartment.

They told state attorneys general that they were kicked out of their homes after landlords accused them of violating tenant rules, like smoking cigarettes inside their units or failing to take the hitches off of their mobile homes.

Like Heidi Stach, who lost her job due to the pandemic and fell behind on rent, they assumed they were protected. But Stach says her landlord found an end-run to Wisconsin’s eviction ban: Instead of starting a court process, he sent her a notice to vacate this summer because he was not renewing her lease.

That type of informal or “extrajudicial” eviction is a work-around to the patchwork of emergency state and federal rules created this year to prevent landlords from ejecting tenants into unstable or crowded living arrangements during the health emergency.

What once was a fringe concern has become a quiet scourge across the nation, said Eric Dunn, director of litigation at the National Housing Law Project, feeding housing instability concerns among the millions who have missed rent payments.

“Since the pandemic started, and courts froze their dockets or had moratoriums, we’ve seen a huge spike in tactics from landlords to get people out,” Dunn said, “including changing locks, cutting off utility service, refusing to make repairs, making threats, providing misinformation and any other creative way to accuse someone of a lease violation that fits an exception in the moratorium.”

Tricks and intimidation behind the scenes add to more overt efforts by landlords to legally evict tenants. With statewide bans largely expired and federal protection from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention moratorium nearing its final days, tenant advocates like Dunn fear things will only get worse.

USA TODAY reviewed hundreds of complaints about landlords filed through the summer by consumers with attorneys general in seven states, including Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, Washington state and Wisconsin.

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Landlords, they told the state agencies, hiked rents even as the tenants lost their jobs and missed utility bill payments. They skipped out on basic maintenance and let conditions deteriorate, leaving renters a choice between leaving on their own or living with mold outbreaks or infestations of bed bugs, roaches and maggots.

While the complaints offer a window into the problem, tenants often found their efforts to enlist state help went nowhere since wrongful evictions typically must be fought in court.

Tasha Tavenner said she and her four children camped in the woods after she lost her job, fell behind on rent and then watched as two men tried to pull the door off the front of her apartment.
From elderly residents on Social Security to single mothers struggling with unemployment, some reported that they were pushed into homelessness, where they could not take basic steps to protect themselves from the virus.

That threat was a driving force behind the moratoriums, and a group of epidemiologists found this month that the measures have helped stem COVID-19’s spread, particularly in poorer neighborhoods where court-ordered eviction is more prevalent.

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Stach, the mother of a 15-year-old daughter with disabilities, came up short in April on her $850 rent. Her lease was up but she assumed she could renew it. Instead, she came home to the notice to vacate.

“It was devastating. I was confused and crying and felt like I was having a panic attack,” Stach said. “I lost my job and now I had to basically beg someone to let us live somewhere else instead of a homeless shelter.”

Stach complained to Wisconsin’s consumer protection agency, which intervened as a mediator, but did not manage to resolve the dispute. Eventually she located a new apartment, but it’s more expensive and in a different neighborhood of La Crosse, requiring her to transfer her daughter to another school district.

Finding a place to live came with added challenges because Stach has a criminal record tied to past drug use. But, armed with a new job at a cheese manufacturer, she was able to get a lease — with an additional rider that says she will be evicted if she has a drug relapse.

“In the middle of this, it’s a lot to pay for rent plus a new security deposit on such short notice while everyone is freaking out about the pandemic,” Stach said.

Her previous landlord at Reliant Real Estate Services said he couldn’t discuss specific tenants but he said none had faced non-renewals or eviction proceedings since late spring. He added that those with looming lease expirations can negotiate move-out dates or month-to-month extensions.

“Evictions and lease non-renewals are never a desired outcome,” Reliant President Aaron Wickesburg wrote in an email. “We will continue to do whatever we can to help keep our tenants in their homes.”

Eviction bans and moratoriums are full of holes
Eviction moratoriums under the federal CARES Act expired on July 25. Many state bans also ended over the summer, or in the fall. The remaining CDC order, enacted Sept. 4, has a simple goal: prevent evictions for non-payment of rent during the pandemic.

But the CDC’s rules are full of exemptions and tricky legal definitions, leaving openings for unscrupulous landlords.

The current CDC order, set to expire Dec. 31, specifies that evictions for non-payment of rent can be prevented if renters fill out a form declaring that they make less than $99,000, are trying to make partial payments and would likely be homeless if evicted. Rent still accrues and is due eventually.

The CDC order comes with criminal penalties, but neither the agency nor the U.S. Department of Justice answered questions on whether a single landlord has been prosecuted.

The order also offers five other reasons evictions can move forward: criminal activity, threats to other residents, damage to property, violation of building codes or violation of any other aspect of a lease.

Dunn said landlords can find subtle ways to use those exemptions to evict a non-paying renter, say when adding a satellite dish turns out to be a lease violation, or when a boyfriend stays over more nights than allowed in the guest portion of the lease. Non-renewals of leases that lead to eviction are a gray area in the CDC order.

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“If a landlord truly wants to evict someone, you know they can find a reason,” said Andrew Aurand, vice president for research at the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Aurand and others have lobbied on Capitol Hill for a federal rent assistance program as part of a pandemic relief bill. Tenant groups favor such programs, which would cost as much as $100 billion, over extended eviction moratoriums.

“The real concern is what happens in January if we don’t find a rental solution,” Aurand said, “and the 30 to 40 million people that again will be at risk for eviction.”

Self-help evictions date back centuries
Extrajudicial or “self-help” evictions — in which landlords take matters into their own hands — date back to Roman law. They were part of English common law and then barred by U.S. courts to quell violence. Today, they refer to any method outside the legal court eviction process.

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