LAW IN ORDER
The Warren Report UNBIASED RESOLUTIONS ARE BENEFICIAL TO ALL By William S. Warren, Warren Law Firm
D
Resolutions by our civic leaders, and others, if made and adhered to, could have significant positive impact on the dilemma currently faced by the residential housing market.
64
espite being written in mid-December 2020, it will be a new year, 2021, when you first read this article. We all know what new years bring. They bring resolutions. You will see countless articles and commentaries on what makes an effective New Year’s resolution. Typically, these resolutions are made by individuals, resolving to begin or change some behavior to make themselves better. Despite frequent failure of such resolutions, the exercise of creating them, and even temporarily committing to them can be quite useful. Here we will focus on how resolutions by our civic leaders, and others, if made and adhered to, could have significant positive impact on the dilemma currently faced by the residential housing market. More specifically, since COVID-19 eviction moratoriums of one type or anoth-
/ W I N D O W O N R E N TA L H O U S I N G
er essentially began in March 2020, a situation has been created where tried-and-true state eviction remedies have been pushed to the side. This is allowing people who have not paid rent for upwards of 10 months to nonetheless remain in leased premises. Stated another way, several of the eviction remedies provided for by the Supreme Court of Texas (SCOTX) and documented in Rules of Civil Procedure (TRCP) and Texas Property Code (TPC) provisions currently cannot be utilized. Let us begin with a resolution for those on the federal level. First, however, a bit of background is in order. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is a federal government agency which has temporarily halted residential evictions through its September 2020 nationwide order, commonly referred to as the eviction moratorium
William S. Warren, Warren Law Firm
order or the CDC Order. In recognition of the immediate impact of the CDC Order, at the time this article was written there were at least six pending challenges in federal courts to its temporary halt on residential evictions. There is strong opposition to these challenges. CDC and the federal government defendants in these cases are maintaining the CDC Order was put in place to prevent the further spread of COVID-19. There is a case challenging the CDC order pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division. There are a lot of parties to it, but for simplicity let us style it as Terkel vs. CDC. It is pending before U.S. District Judge Jake Campbell Barker in Tyler, Texas. Most of the plaintiffs in Terkel vs. CDC own, built, or manage and maintain residential rental properties. Having expended substantial financial resources to do so, the plaintiffs in Terkel vs. CDC had the reasonable expectation, according to their pleadings, that they would be legally permitted to realize the benefit of their bargain by collecting monthly rent from their tenants. The plaintiffs’ pleadings in Terkel vs. CDC go on to state that these owners, builders, and managers expected
