RICHARDSON (WBAP/KLIF)- With many people laid off from work due to COVID-19, it may be difficult for some to pay for rent April 1st.
Greg Fell, a Landlord/Tenant Lawyer in Richardson said he’s had a lot of calls asking what’s going to happen with evictions. Fell said there are laws in place right now that restrict landlords from evicting tenants who don’t pay on time, but they can still go to trial once the moratorium expires.
“Currently in North Texas Laws or moratoriums that are affecting the eviction docket are in place through April 19th, Dallas County is in place through May 18th and Tarrant County’s moratorium is indefinite,” said Fell. Fell said this means a tenant is still obligated to pay rent and a landlord can file an eviction complaint but it can’t be set for trial until later on. “To the extent, this gives some relief to tenants because they can’t be forcibly removed from their homes for some time now, however there is still a legal obligation for those tenants to make those payments under the lease,” said Fell.
Fell said as hard as it is for tenants, it’s challenging for landlords as well. “There’s a lot of individual investors who may own a rental home and they need to have a tenant pay rent so they can in turn take that money and pay for the upkeep of the home, the mortgage and the taxes. Both landlords and tenants are going to be hurting,” he said.
“If things don’t change and these moratoriums expire come May, these courts are going to be overwhelmed with evictions and it’s going to be a big mess,” he said.
Fell said the best advice he could give to tenants and landlords would be to work together and set up a payment plan if necessary.
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