According to a recent post by The Washington Post, experts are conflicted as to why evictions did not happen once the moratorium was struck down. CHIP argues that evictions did not happen simply because it is not in the landlords best interest to actually evict tenants. In addition to that, courts are still experiencing a large amount of backlogging due to the pandemic. So because of that eviction filings have not shot up. Politicians and tenant activities kept suggesting that every tenant that was in arrears would get evicted and as a result of that many tenants moved out on their own to avoid that happening. Although the article states that a lot of renters were not aware that the CDC eviction ban existed, many states also had protections of their own. Experts seem to believe that this tsunami is still coming and that CERAP is not going to protect tenants when the time comes. Eviction proceedings do take time and protections are put in place to make sure everyone gets what is fair. People have a misconception that once a case is started you will get evicted right away. Here is a breakdown of how the process happens:
1. Notice is posted
2. Petition is filed and served
3. Court hearing and judgment
4. Writ of execution is issued
5. Possession of property is returned
All those steps take days or months to be processed and the judge could still grant a stay of execution, which could be up to a year. CHIP suggests that all landlords want is communication, if tenants speak up about their difficulties and they can come up with an agreement all should be good. Eviction proceedings will start to take place when tenants are unresponsive and give absolutely no attention to the situation at hand. Landlords are not the monsters here and the pandemic has brought up a lot of hardship for everyone.

Here is the link for the article:

The feared eviction ‘tsunami’ has not yet happened. Experts are conflicted on why.