AG Bonta: 1.5 Million California Renters at Risk of Eviction

Houses spread across Orange County, Calif., on Oct. 16, 2020. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

As many as 1.5 million renters in California are facing eviction and continue to struggle paying rent after many COVID-19 rent moratoriums ended, according to state Attorney General Rob Bonta.

Bonta’s office has issued guidelines asking law enforcement across the state not to respond to illegal attempts to remove non-paying tenants (pdf).

“Nearly 1.5 million renters in California are at risk of eviction, struggling to put together next month’s rent as the cost of living continues to rise,” Bonta said in a July 13 release. “While landlords may be frustrated, they have a responsibility to go through proper proceedings if eviction is the necessary next step.”

That means landlords need to file court actions instead of taking matters into their own hands, according to Bonta.

“You cannot change the locks, shut off power, or remove personal property in order to force a tenant out of their home,” Bonta said.

The so-called self-help evictions are unlawful. Landlords could be civilly or criminally liable if they don’t follow legal remedies, according to the attorney general.

The Attorney General’s Office was unable to say how many complaints the office has received because that information is considered confidential, Bonta’s press office told The Epoch Times.

About one in seven renters in the Golden State are behind on their rent, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

A large majority—73 percent—of those who have missed rental payments are at least a couple of months behind, and 27 percent are five or more months behind, according to the policy institute.

As of April, the California Department of Housing and Community Development had distributed $2.8 billion in federal COVID emergency rental relief to 252,000 rental households, the institute said.

Renters who had pending applications for assistance were protected from eviction through June.

Sheriff’s departments across the state are starting to see eviction cases move through the courts after stalling for months during the COVID-19 pandemic, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea told The Epoch Times. Honea also serves as president of the board for the California State Sheriffs’ Association.

“Like a lot of things with COVID that were kind of put on hold, now we’re starting to see those cases move through the system, but that’s no different than criminal cases. We saw many criminal cases that were delayed because of COVID and now those cases are starting to move their way through the court system,” Honea said.

Rental property owners sometimes try to evict tenants by cutting off water or electricity, or removing tenant property and locking them out. These actions are misdemeanors and law enforcement officers should not help landlords in these cases, according to the attorney general.

Officers should instead instruct rental property owners to allow the tenants back into the home, Bonta said.

The guidelines are not new, but a reiteration of existing law, according to Honea. “If landlords want to ensure that they’re not violating either criminal law or becoming civilly liable for misconduct, they should seek competent legal counsel and then go through the legal process to obtain an eviction in an order issued by the court,” Honea said.

However, court orders for evictions can take months, especially following the pandemic-era court closures and eviction moratoriums, Dan Yukelson, executive director of the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, told The Epoch Times.

Many who lost jobs in the entertainment industry, restaurants, and service-related fields are still not paying rent after two-and-a-half years. Meanwhile, property owners have seen new cars show up at their properties and pictures of tenants on social media traveling all over the world while not paying rent, Yukelson said.

In Los Angeles, renters who file for COVID-19 rent relief or protection don’t have to provide proof of their conditions.

“In many cases, owners are left holding the bag, and they’ll never collect the past-due rent,” Yukelson said.

Apartments in Long Beach, Calif., on Nov. 1, 2021. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Instead of enduring prolonged and expensive court actions, many owners are trying other ways to recoup their losses, he said. Some are reporting tenant debt to credit bureaus, filing for state relief funds, or forgiving the debt and issuing federal 1099-C statements to renters. The IRS requires renters to pay taxes on any debt of more than $600 owed to landlords.

And, the majority of rental property owners in the state are small-business owners. They are dependent on the rental income for retirement and other expenses, according to Yukelson.

Los Angeles County’s eviction moratorium lasts until June 2023. That means some renters can accrue three years of rent debt. Many owners are forced out of business as a result, leaving less affordable housing in the area, he said.

“The way government set this up for rental property owners is so unfair and really left owners in a precarious financial position,” Yukelson said. “Today, a lot of them are concerned about defaulting on their loans, worried about losing their properties. A lot of them are selling their properties, just to recover some of their loses.”

Bonta’s tactics are “ridiculous,” he said.

“Bonta’s treating rental property owners as if they’re criminals,” Yukelson said. “And he’s done that right from the beginning, and he’s doing it without any evidence. And that’s no good for anybody. He’s just running more people out of the business.”