California Sides with Nonpaying Tenants, again.

by: Jared Clemens 

California did it again! In the last days before the end of the “covered time period” of the COVID-19 Tenant Relief Act, they pushed it back again.

The world has slowly returned to normal (or at least much closer to it) since January 31. Businesses have reopened. The government has stopped requiring masks. And the greatest threat to income now is the “great resignation of 2021;” rather than returning to the office, employees are choosing to quit their jobs, having been spoiled by at-home work. (“Employees Are Quitting Instead of Giving Up Working From Home” Bloomberg. June 1, 2021.) While workers are voluntarily quitting their paying jobs, California is making it easier for them to avoid financial obligations by continuing to prevent evictions for nonpayment of rent.

First, landlords were told that they could not evict persons for rent owed between March 01, 2020 and January 31, 2021. On January 29, 2021, they changed it.1

Then, the legislature told landlords that the covered time period would end on June 30, 2021, but on June 28, 2021, they changed it.2

Now, the legislature tells landlords that the end of the covered time period will be September 30, 2021.3 But I have little confidence that this will remain the same. Although I don’t think that Assembly Bill 15 will be the bill to do it, Assembly Bill 15 has not been withdrawn and currently sets the end of the covered time period for December 31, 2021.

Kudos to Assembly Member Vince Fong who voted against extending the covered time period. Senator Shannon Grove voted to approve the extension. To see how your representatives voted on this measure, first find your California representative and then look at the vote history for AB-832.

Thank you to Vince Fong, who supported Landlords by voting “NO” on AB-832.