COVID-19 Related Evictions

COVID-19 Related Evictions – Lifting the fog of uncertainty around the law

One of the jobs of a good property manager is to balance the interests of the property owner, with those of the tenants and residents of the properties they manage. This means that companies offering property management in Baltimore routinely make decisions based on business agreements, prevailing law and human-interest factors. One of the hardest of those decisions relates to evictions. The ongoing COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated the difficulty in making such decisions.

We’ll take a deep dive into how Baltimore property managers are impacted by new COVID-related laws and proclamations. Our focus today is on how these laws affect the eviction process.

For property managers in Baltimore to properly apply eviction laws, they must first understand what types of evictions they may be facing. Maryland’s judicial system recognizes four types of evictions – each of which may or may not have relevance to COVID-19 eviction laws[1]:

1)      Failure to Pay Rent: This is likely the most common cause for evictions. It arises when a tenant refuses to pay (for any reason) rent owed per the terms of the lease. When a tenant falls behind on rental obligations, property managers (acting on behalf of the property owner) may file a case for eviction.

 2)  Tenant Holding Over: If you have a tenant with an expired lease, living in one of your managed properties, your best recourse is to try and negotiate a lease extension. That way, everyone gets what they need: Tenants have a place to legally live in. Property owners get a regular stream of income. Property managers spare themselves the legal hassles that come with eviction.

Despite your best efforts, however, if a lease extension does not occur, a Baltimore property management company has legal right to file an eviction case of Tenant Holding Over. Before proceeding with such filing, property managers must ensure they provide adequate notice of intent to evict. How much notice is required? That may depend on the local laws in each county.

3)  Breach of Lease: One common reason to file an eviction order relates to instances where tenants aren’t abiding by the terms of the lease agreement. This might occur, for example, as a result of behavior that the tenant, or his/her guests, may indulge in that is harmful to the wellbeing of others in the unit or on the premises. It may also be actions that are detrimental to the preservation of the property.

The law requires companies, involved in property management in Baltimore, to first provide the tenant written notice of the infractions of the lease. In such notice, property managers may request tenants to leave the property due to said violations. Failure to leave the property voluntarily gives property managers ground to file a case under Breach of Lease provisions. It is important to note, however, that courts typically only issue eviction orders in cases of serious violations.

4)  Wrongful Detainer: Property owners may sometimes have friends, relatives or guests occupying a unit/s in their property. As a property manager, owners may sometimes ask you to evict those residents. You may do so by filing a Wrongful Detainer case.

Before filing such a case, property management companies in Baltimore must understand that such requests may, at times, ensue as a result of there being no written rental lease or agreement. For instance, if an owner gives permission for his/her in-laws or extended family to occupy a unit, there’ll typically be no written agreement to document such an arrangement. Once those “guests” outlive their welcome, and refuse to leave when the owner requests them to do so, they become “squatters”. The Wrongful Detainer law is a tool to force eviction of such occupants.

As touched upon briefly, earlier, each case has its own merits, and those must be weighed against the circumstances on which it is being filed. For instance, you could (lawfully) file a Breach of Lease case against a tenant who sets off his/her in-unit fire alarm at 3:00 AM. However, if this is not a repeated behavior pattern, the courts will likely not issue an eviction order.



Effective March 5th, 2020, Governor Larry Hogan issued an emergency order that temporarily prohibited evictions of tenants impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Such stay of evictions only impacted tenants who experienced substantial loss of income due to the crisis, and were unable to pay rent as a result. The moratorium was set to expire on June 30th, 2021. It’s also important for Baltimore County property management companies to know that subsequently, on June 29, 2021, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky signed an extension to the original eviction moratorium, which offered reprieve to tenants until July 31, 2021.

So, as a property management professional, how does this impact you and your ability to evict tenants?

Before we dig deeper into the letter of the law, and how these proclamations impact you, as a property manager, it may be worthwhile understanding the spirit of these declarations. The premise, of both the Governors’ and the CDC Directors’ announcements, is to extend financial relief to renters living in apartment communities or other leased spaces. More specifically, the decrees aim to provide temporary reprieve from eviction due to situations brought about by factors beyond the renter’s control.

Once companies, involved in rental property management in Baltimore, appreciate the spirit of these laws, it might be easier to implement and enforce the letter of the law. So, what does the letter of the law stipulate? At a very macro level:

·   You may not be able to serve eviction notice if the tenant can prove to the courts that their failure to pay is a direct result of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis

·   Such failure may occur due to loss of a job, reduction in working hours, or diminished alternative income-earning opportunities

·   The courts won’t just consider whether the tenant has formally been dismissed or laid off. Other considerations might include the inability to work (even though there’s no dismissal involved) due to being diagnosed with COVID or a related illness

·   You’ll also have limited recourse to eviction if a tenant is unable to pay since they can’t work because he/she must take care of children, who stay at home due to COVID-related school closures

·   Property management companies in Baltimore may also not evict tenants experiencing loss of income (and hence can’t pay rent) because they are unable to work while taking care of family or loved-ones suffering from COVID or a related illness.



As a property manager, it behooves you to also be aware of other downstream impacts that these decrees and proclamations might have on you – either directly or indirectly. Some property owners may have agreements/arrangements in place with utility providers for their properties. As a property manager, you could be acting as an agent, on behalf of the property owner, of such utility providers.

Companies offering property management in Baltimore County, in such agency capacity, should be aware of an additional emergency order, issued by Governor Hogan’s office, that may impact how you perform your agency-related duties. That supplemental order prohibits utility providers from causing additional hardship to tenants. Such providers may include those delivering services to tenants that include:

·   Gas

·   Electricity

·   Sewage

·   Water

·   Cable TV

·   Phone

·   Internet

The supplemental order prohibits vendors from shutting down or suspending services to COVID-19 impacted tenants, or those who may not have paid their utility dues as a result of such impact. These service providers are also not allowed to charge late fees or additional surcharges resulting from non-payment of utility dues by impacted tenants. If your company is involved in property management in Baltimore MD, and part of your duties relate to enforcing the collection of utility dues owed to 3rd-party service providers, you may be impacted by these provisions.

At times, its challenging to balance the interests of property owners over those of the tenants occupying the units you manage. However, most property managers in Baltimore can use some good judgement, and a lot of common sense, to ensure they perform their duties professionally and in good conscience. Approaching each eviction case using such a frame of mind can help better balance those opposing interests.

One industry best practice is to speak with a tenant first – either in person or via voice or video link – to understand the reasons behind a lease agreement violation. Even if it is not a payment issue – e.g., a noise complaint; it may be COVID-related. In speaking with the tenant, a good Baltimore County property management company might discover that a neighbor’s noise complaint may be valid, but precipitated due to COVID-related changes to work timings, temporary changes to living behavior, or other extenuating circumstances.

Remember: In every instance, whether it’s Failure to pay rent, Tenant Holding Over, Breach of Lease or Wrongful Detainer, a judge will use similar (if not identical) standards to determine if eviction is warranted. Having a conversation with a tenant, prior to serving notice or instigating legal proceedings, may result in a determination that filing an eviction case is hardly justified.

[1] https://mdcourts.gov/legalhelp/housingtenants