just saw the first day of the eviction moratorium play out in court. a tenant who had legal representation signed and presented the declaration to the landlord before the hearing. the eviction was immediately dismissed.

the landlord’s lawyer still wanted to move for the eviction to be granted and the judge was like “wtf no i literally can’t, there are new rules now, you can file again in 2021.” lawyer was SHOOK (they’re not used to not getting their way)

HOWEVER, the rest of the evictions still went through. at first, the judge wasn’t sure what to do if tenants weren’t there (no other tenants showed up today). but a lawyer for one of the major property developers here (Lund Co.) figured it out.

the moratorium requires the tenant to take a specific action, and if they don’t, they can be evicted. so the lawyer presented an affidavit or had the property manager testify that they had NOT received the declaration. then proceeded to evict about six households in a row.

so some good and bad things. the good thing is that the judge is bringing up the moratorium and making landlords prove they haven’t received a declaration. the bad thing is, obviously, that tenants have to know about the declaration, make the declaration, and show up in court.

landlords and developers are going to figure out real fast that there are ways around this moratorium (evicting for something under than nonpayment of rent, evicting fast so tenants don’t have a chance to react, encouraging tenants not to show to court, lying, etc)

so the work continues, and we will have to worry about mass evictions again in january. but at least for a while tenant organizers aren’t completely helpless when someone reaches out bc they’re being evicted. we are in a better, safer place for organizing for the next few months.

i also have plenty of questions about the moratorium (can it stop landlords from not renewing leases? will/can landlords start contesting that tenants meet the criteria?) but hopefully this helps explain how it works in omaha (other places might be different)

oh also, here is the CDC website with the order and the declaration form! https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-eviction-declaration.html