Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. would like to congratulate The Real Deal and Kathryn Brenzel for first reporting the new, and hopefully last, moratorium law signed by the governor late yesterday.
The real estate community owes a great debt of gratitude to The Real Deal for educating the real estate industry on the new laws and executive orders passed during the pandemic. See Kate’s article here and a summary of its provisions that Adam Leitman Bailey has put together:- The law applies to commercial foreclosures and evictions of businesses of 50 or fewer employees.
- The landlord shall include a hardship declaration with every written notice required by commercial lease and notice required by law or rule prior to the commencement of an eviction proceeding until May 1.
- The landlord must attest that it did not receive a hardship application if the eviction proceeding was started prior to May 1.
- There is no requirement for a tenant to prove that the tenant has actually had a hardship.
- For cases started prior to March 7, cases are stayed or stopped for 60 days or however many days are needed for the chief judge to determine that the courts are prepared to handle the cases.
- Self-help evictions are prohibited until May 1 without exception.
- If the tenant provides a hardship declaration then there will not be an eviction until May 1.
- However, if a hardship declaration has been presented but a court has found that the tenant is persistently and unreasonably engaging in behavior that substantially infringes on the use and enjoyment of other tenants or causes a substantial safety hazard to others, with a specific description of the behavior, then the application must be turned into the landlord.
