Homeowners have long argued that the moratorium was based on legally shaky ground, questioning the constitutionality of tying a major intervention in the national housing market to federal law aimed at stopping disease transmission.
The ruling “further demonstrates the illegality of this policy and reaffirms the extent to which the CDC has exceeded its authority,” said Robert Pinnegar, president of the National Apartment Association, a trade association representing large landlords that has also pushed for an end to the moratorium.
“The government must end enforcement of the CDC regulation and begin notifying stakeholders, including judges, now to prepare them to end,” he said.
The moratorium covers tens of millions of Americans at various income levels.
The Executive Order signed by Mr. Trump applies to every single renter earning less than $ 99,000 per year and families earning twice as much. According to the Census Bureau, around 8.2 million renters said they had slumped in their rents during the pandemic.
Enforcing the moratorium has always been an uncertain, even chaotic matter, left to the discretion of the judges of the State Housing Court.
These judges make decisions based on a variety of criteria, not just the federal moratorium, including local eviction orders and subjective factors such as a renter’s payment history and a landlord’s records of repairs.
Federal decisions, like the one passed on Wednesday, are significant but serve as a guide rather than an order – although a clear decision from a prominent federal court is likely to sway some local judges, said Eric Dunn, litigation director for the National Housing Law Project, a tenants’ agency .
