| 
Acting Boston Mayor Kim Janey speaks to reporters at an Aug. 22, 2021 press conference in this file photo. Photo by Isabel Leon | Boston Mayor's Office
Boston landlords are now banned from evicting their tenants under a public health order announced by acting Mayor Kim Janey Tuesday evening.
“The loss of federal eviction protections and the ongoing pandemic has put our most vulnerable neighbors at risk of losing their homes,” Janey said in a statement. “I am implementing a housing stability agenda to continue Boston’s public health recovery with emergency assistance for renters and homeowners who need help.”
The move comes as housing advocates increasingly worried last week’s Supreme Court decision overturning the latest federal eviction moratorium would lead to a surge in eviction cases. President Joe Biden has urged state and local leaders to act on their own to prevent evictions of tenants who lost income due to COVID-19’s economic damage.
The order published on the commission’s website bans landlords and property owners from serving or having someone else serve eviction notices and from enforcing residential evictions. The order does not apply to cases where a court has found that a tenant’s presence in a unit has created “serious violations of the terms of the tenancy that impair the health and safety of other building residents or immediately adjacent neighbors.”
The order also requires landlords to give tenants at least 48 hours’ advance notice of any attempt to access a unit, whether for “general inspections, displaying units to potential future tenants and other non-critical activities.” Tenants under the order will have the right to be present at their sole discretion “if the proposed date or time is inconvenient for them,” and they are empowered to “require” the visit to be rescheduled provided they “offer to reschedule within a reasonable time.” Everyone in the unit over two years old must wear a mask during the visits.
As justification, the order cites the threat of COVID-19 transmission between vaccinated individuals, the Delta variant’s virulence and the threat of increased COVID-19 transmission if a person is evicted or rendered homeless due to an eviction.
The move may well be challenged in court by local landlords, with two prominent attorneys confirming to Banker & Tradesman that discussions were already underway about a potential suit. However, it’s possible many landlords will be uninterested in filing legal cases.
“Usually what happens when push comes to shove is the landlord decides it’s not worth litigating. They’ll just offer their renter a cash-for-keys agreement. Those aren’t banned,” MassLandlords Executive Director Doug Quattrochi said in an email. “The courts were designed to regulate and resolve landlord tenant disputes. But increasingly they’re unavailable. If you regulate something out of existence, you drive it into unregulated channels. Now with less and less court access, the rise of cash-for-keys is to me a sobering thought. Landlords would rather persuade a tenant to leave on the landlord’s terms than access the blocked judicial branch. Seems like exactly the opposite of what renter advocates have worked so hard for the last 50 years.”
The Greater Boston Real Estate Board was not immediately available for comment.
The state already has a law in place that prevents a court from moving forward with an eviction case if a tenant has a pending application with state COVID-19 rental aid programs. However, these programs have been repeatedly criticized as being too slow to distribute aid and demanding an inordinate amount of documentation from tenants, leading many to abandon applications without submitting them. A bill is gaining steam on Beacon Hill that would reform the rental aid process and institute a 10-month statewide eviction freeze.
In her announcement yesterday, Janey also said the city Department of Neighborhood Development would be establishing a new, $5 million foreclosure prevention fund that would “help cover costs related to homeownership including mortgage, insurance, and condominium fee payments” if a homeowner was delinquent. The fund will be financed with federal COVID-19 aid the city received.
Updated: 9:56 a.m., Sept. 1, 2021: This story has been updated with comment from MassLandlords and details from the Boston Public Health Commission order.
