Querin Law

The City of Portland continues to tighten its grip on local landlords. It has temporarily amended its housing code to provide thatif anyrent increase effective between September 16, 2020 and March 31, 2021 is received and the tenant is unable to pay the increased amount, the renter is potentially eligible for Relocation Assistance from the landlord. See: Portland City Code,  PCC 30.01.085. 

Question: Do the state and federal eviction moratoriums apply to RV tenants?  What about short-term guests who are not technically “tenants?”

In the continuing fight to slow the spread of COVID, the White House has just announced an Order barring nonpayment of rent evictions against most tenants through December 31, 2020. 

It has been issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”). The text can be found here.  

This new moratorium is just one of many throughout the country. The federal government passed the CARES Act, which was intended to protect renters in apartments and single-family homes financed with a federally backed mortgage (e.g. Fannie and Freddie, etc.). It has since expired, which, in part, is why the CDC Order was enacted. 

However, the CDC order is much broader than the CARES Act, and applies to all renters of residential housing.[1] However, to obtain this protection, tenants will have to attest, under oath, to a substantial loss of household income; the inability to pay full rent; to having exercised their best efforts to obtain all available government assistance for rent or housing; that eviction would require them to live in close quarters with others; and attesting that an eviction would likely leave them homeless or otherwise, etc.

Question:  A resident in our community has ants in her home. She says they are coming from the ground around the home and has had an exterminator out who confirms that the infestation is coming from the ground.  The resident demands that we pay for the exterminator and that the infestation be controlled at the expense of management. WE do not believe it is our responsibility.  What are your thoughts?

Question:  I am confused on the use of rules violation notices.  Do I use a 20-day notice or 30-day notice?  Does the “three strikes law” apply?

Question.Landlord has given resident notification of expiration of lease term, but tenant has not responded.  What does landlord do when there is no response from resident?  Should she still accept rent, which would turn it into a month-to-month tenancy? What is the best strategy?

Question.  I have a tenant requesting a reasonable accommodation for a ramp. On the MHCO From 15 (Reasonable Accommodation Request), is says the tenant is responsible for the costs and removal for a modification unless required by law. Is it required by the law to install a ramp? This would mean the Park would pay for it, or is it not a law and a tenant would have to pay the costs to get one installed? We own the unit and space. It is a mobile home rental.

Question: We were awarded a stipulated payment agreement  prior to the moratorium going into effect. The resident has defaulted on their agreement but has tried to make partial payments. If the courts were open, we could file a notice of noncompliance and move forward with an eviction. But the way I understand our current landscape is,  if we take a partial payment that’s not equal to his stipulated payment agreement,  it gets thrown out and we would have to start the process all over again.   It would be great if we could accept the payments and if by the time the moratorium was over and the resident was still behind on then we could file on the defaulted agreement.

Question: We have a resident who has expressed displeasure over finding political  & religious pamphlets, etc., left in the clubhouse.  Not wanting to cater to the complaining resident, but also not wanting to offend others or place the park in a bad position, what is the safest legal way to deal with this issue?

Question:  Our manager is having difficulties with troublesome residents who are interfering with his efforts to fill spaces. In one case it is a vacant mobile home the manager is showing, but the neighbor is mean/obnoxious and does not want the home purchased. In the other case we have an empty RV pad and another neighbor comes out scaring away the RV owner who wants to rent the space. What are our legal rights regarding these two neighbors?