4 minute read
What will 2021 bring?
With 2020 in the rearview mirror, will there be headwinds or tailwinds for the apartment industry?
By Mark Zinman, Esq.
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If I had to summarize my thoughts, it would be as follows: “We will likely continue the changes that we have seen since March, 2020 and expect more pro-tenant advocacy.”
In other words, buckle up managers and owners and get ready for more change.
Last year, in the November-December issue of Apartment News, I wrote the following about 2020: “Recently, there has been an influx of stories regarding landlord-tenant matters and the negative perception being created about landlords. A day doesn’t go by without a story being published online or written in the newspaper about a landlord increasing rents or evicting a tenant. These stories ultimately create the political climate around which legislators pass laws and judges review landlord-tenant disputes. It is expected that more anti-landlord legislation will be proposed and judges will look more critically upon evictions.”
There was absolutely no way to know that COVID-19 would cause a global pandemic or the impact it would have on our industry. However, the anti-property owner sentiment that I mentioned in 2019 permeated every news story and piece of legislation that we saw in 2020. While COVID-19 hit everyone in the country, your elected officials decided for property owners to bear the financial burden for non-paying residents. This unprecedented and unconstitutional decision did not happen in a bubble – it happened because of the negative perception being created about property owners.
2021 Change
It’s not as if grocery stores were forced to hand out free food to anyone who wanted it, yet that is effectively what happened with property owners – they were forced to provide services to people who were not required to timely pay for it. This was viewed as acceptable by voters because of the narrative that has been created about property owners.
During this time, we have repeatedly heard from clients that they can’t wait until the pandemic is behind them and things go back to normal. Unfortunately, I am here to tell you that legal matters, evictions especially, are not simply going to revert to how they were pre-COVID and managers must be prepared for change.
The narrative that property owners and managers are bad is not going away once COVID-19 gets under control. This same narrative will be used to propose pro-tenant legislation and advocacy in 2021.
First, many people may not realize it, but during the pandemic, the Arizona Supreme Court passed important changes to the practice of law. Starting on Jan. 1, 2021, there will now be a new lower level of a legal provider, called a legal para-practitioner. This is someone who hasn’t gone to law school or passed the bar exam, but has met certain educational and testing criteria to enable them to go into court and represent people.
The thought behind this is that they will charge less and thus bring access to justice for people who can’t afford attorneys. It is suspected that these lower tier practitioners will likely start showing up on landlord-tenant matters, including evictions.
This means that even if they don’t bring meritorious defenses for residents, they will cause delay and increase the attorneys’ fees that owners pay for evictions.
Second, while the current eviction moratoriums are set to lapse, there are no guarantees that such matters will not be extended or sought again. As of the writing of this article, Gov. Doug Ducey’s Executive Order regarding evictions was set to expire on Oct. 31. The Centers for Disease Control moratorium is scheduled to expire on Dec. 31.
However, on a national level there are talks about whether another moratorium should be created to deal with the pandemic. While there is no way to know whether new moratoriums would be passed, this demonstrates the fact that everything will not simply go away on Jan. 1, 2021. What is known, is that managers and owners must take an active role in what happens in the years to come.
The AMA works diligently to represent this industry at the legislature and in the courts. It’s necessary for members to support the industry both financially and with their time. This could be as simple as joining the Government Affairs Committee or publicizing the positive things your communities are doing for residents. These are challenging times for residents, managers and owners alike and we need to be proactive as these issues arise.
Mark B. Zinman is an attorney with Zona Law Group. He is a past and present board member with the AMA. He may be reached at 480-994-4732.
