SC ban on evictions ends May 1, but federal law may protect some renters
As more renters worry about how to pay for their housing, a ban on evictions in South Carolina is set to expire on Friday.
But for many South Carolina tenants, any effort to kick them out for not paying rent may be illegal under the federal CARES Act, according to a group of South Carolina attorneys.
A consortium of legal service providers and other organizations has asked South Carolina Chief Justice Donald Beatty to extend the state’s moratorium on evictions to match a federal eviction stay that lasts until late August.
The consortium includes Appleseed Legal Justice Center and South Carolina Legal Services.
“If the flood gates open, we’re really worried that a lot of people covered under the federal law will slip through the cracks,” said Adam Protheroe, a litigation attorney with Appleseed Legal. “There’s almost a guarantee there will be illegal evictions because of this.”
The consortium emphasized that tenants still have to pay rent, as Beatty has pointed out. Not paying rent leaves tenants open to penalties, even eviction, after eviction stays end, according to lawyers.
Caught in the middle are renters like Chris Kelley of Irmo, a father of two who has felt the financial blows brought on by the coronavirus.
In April, his work hours at a hospital were cut in half because of a downturn in profits caused by COVID-19. He thought he wouldn’t be able to pay rent. Luckily, his income tax refund and federal stimulus money from the CARES Act came in and he’ll be able to make his May rent. His hours were reinstated too.
“I’m doing alright for now,” Kelley said.
But he worries that the coronavirus might still cost him wages, which could threaten his ability to pay the rent.
“Who knows with stuff going on?” he said.
Beatty, the Supreme Court chief justice, put South Carolina’s eviction halt into place March 17 to protect tenants and court workers during the health and economic crisis.
If Beatty doesn’t extend the stay past Friday, May 1, Charleston housing attorney Nicole Paluzzi said “we’re expecting non-payment rent cases and a lot of them.”
Paluzzi works with Charleston Pro Bono Legal Services, which provides legal services for people who can’t afford private attorneys or other costs associated with the court system.
In early April, she was getting about 10 calls a week from tenants needing legal help.
“Now I’m getting calls every hour it seems,” she said.
In the last week, calls for Charleston Pro Bono’s help increased by 300 percent, Paluzzi said.
Many of those calls are from people who weren’t able to pay their rent in April or won’t be able to in May because of lost jobs. People are telling her they’re unable to get unemployment benefits or haven’t gotten federal stimulus money and need advice or representation in court as notices from property managers arrive that say evictions will be filed in May.
The end of South Carolina’s eviction stay will open the flood gates of tenants with legal needs, Charleston Pro Bono’s director Alissa Lietzow said.
But these tenants might already be protected from eviction. The issue is that South Carolina’s court system might not know about this protection, according to lawyers.
In an April 15 letter sent to Beatty, the consortium of organizations, which includes Charleston Pro Bono, said tenants of a “substantial amount” of rental property in South Carolina are protected from eviction by the CARES Act, which was signed into law on March 27.
The CARES Act halted evictions from properties that are financed by federal mortgages and subsidies until Aug. 24.
More than 28 percent of housing in the United States is backed by the federal government, according to the letter to Beatty. The consortium believes that percentage is higher in South Carolina.
If evictions are allowed in May, renters who are protected by federal law could be wrongfully ejected from their homes because of the way evictions are judged in South Carolina.
Evictions are nearly always resolved by magistrates. In those courts, defense attorneys aren’t allowed to request time to find out if a landlord’s mortgage is federally backed, according to Paluzzi.
Landlords might not even know if their mortgages are with the federal government because mortgages are often bought and sold without the owner’s knowledge, Paluzzi said. Also, property owners may have gotten their mortgages through a bank without knowing the bank’s mortgage is federally backed.
Because eviction cases are resolved quickly in court, tenants may be evicted from their homes even though they are protected by the CARES Act.
The consortium’s letter says that finding out if a mortgage is federally backed “will be difficult if not impossible” without attorneys and clients being given the proper time.
With a backlog of cases, the courts’ “likelihood of error is extremely high and the consequences to families wrongfully evicted singularly devastating,” the consortium wrote to Beatty.
Knowing he might have federal protection if things take a turn for the worse is some comfort, Kelley said. But as the lawyers who wrote Beatty believed would be the case for most renters, Kelley doesn’t know if the landlord’s financing for his home is federal.
“It’s always one paycheck away from getting bad,” Kelley said.
And without an extension of South Carolina’s eviction stay, he’s vulnerable of being out of a home as the pandemic continues.
This story was originally published April 30, 2020 at 12:32 PM.