LEXINGTON, Ky.(WTVQ) – On Sunday evening, President Trump signed the COVID-19 Relief Package, a bill that would help renters who are struggling to keep a roof over their head.
A sum of $290,000 will be evenly distributed in the commonwealth, extending the moratorium on evictions until January 31st, 2021.
Stephen Marshall, a Landlord Attorney in Lexington says its “bad news” for landlords.
“They not only lose the income from their business when they can’t collect the rent. They also lose the inventory, because they can’t get their housing back,” says Marshall.
Governor Andy Beshear has supported this moratorium and adopted it here in the bluegrass state, however the state supreme court is still allowing certain addictions. Marshall says that even though landlords can’t kick out someone who isn’t paying, someone else can.
“Their lender can foreclose on the property that is a tough pill to swallow, especially when landlords are dealing with tenants who they know are getting income,” says Marshall.
In addition to lack of payment, Marshall says there are “Other” ways renters could come home to an eviction sign including damaging the property or disturbing neighbors .
“It can be any, any violation of the lease, whether if pets are not allowed and they have a pet, or perhaps certain breeds of pets are not allowed and they have that type of pet. If they have people residing in their rental unit that are not on the lease that authorized occupants. If they’re disturbing their neighbor by their behavior. If they’re engaging in some type of criminal activity. If they’re causing some type of damage to the property. Those are all lease violations that are fair game for eviction,” says Marshall.
Marshall says he expects rental assistance to be available with the extension of this moratorium.
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For more information about rental assistance, click the link here.