Apartment owners sue Beshear to allow evictions of tenants who don’t pay rent
A group of Northern Kentucky apartment owners filed a lawsuit Tuesday in federal court against Gov. Andy Beshear and circuit court clerks to allow landlords to evict tenants for not paying rent during the coronavirus pandemic.
The 44-page lawsuit says Beshear essentially has shut down landlords’ ability to evict tenants in Kentucky’s circuit court by closing these courts to eviction cases even though they are open for other purposes.
While some tenants have protection from evictions under the terms of the federal CARES Act, others do not and they are taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic by not paying rent that is due, says the lawsuit.
“Many landlords, including the plaintiffs in this case, have bent over backwards to work with tenants impacted by COVID-19,” said Chris Wiest, the Northern Kentucky attorney who filed the lawsuit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky in Covington.
“But some tenants have not been adversely impacted,” Wiest said. “They are abusing the situation, the system, and their landlords, leaving the property owners with costly bills, maintenance costs, and utilities payments while the tenants literally have thumbed their nose at the landlords.”
Beshear spokeswoman Crystal Staley said the governor’s orders do not remove Kentuckians’ right to seek justice before a court and “plainly state they do not interfere with the judicial branch’s authority.”
The orders “seek to help protect Kentuckians who may have lost their jobs during the global health pandemic and allow them to be healthy at home, but clearly state the suspension of evictions does not relieve tenants’ obligation to pay their rent, to pay their mortgage or comply with any other obligation under their lease or mortgage,” she said.
Plaintiffs in the case are the Greater Cincinnati Northern Kentucky Apartment Association and three apartment building owners in the region.
They are asking the court to declare Beshear’s orders unconstitutional, allow enforcement of evictions in circuit court, and award them reasonable costs and fees. The suit only covers evictions in Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties.
The federal CARES Act, which was enacted into law earlier this year, provides for a 120-day eviction moratorium until July 25 for certain “covered dwellings,” which includes rental units covered under federal assistance programs or those subject to a federally backed mortgage loan.
On May 8, Beshear modified a March 25 executive order that effectively indefinitely suspended all eviction proceedings in the state.
As a result, circuit court clerks in Boone, Kenton, and Campbell counties have refused to accept eviction complaints from landlords, the suit says.
The Northern Kentucky apartment association and its landlord members said in a news release that they have established a tenant assistance fund to help tenants who are unable to pay rent.
The association also is working with community organizations to help tenants find jobs and rent assistance and has strongly encouraged both landlords and tenants to work together to reach payment agreements.
“Landlords represented by GCNKAA have entered into a number of such agreements for those tenants who are willing to work with their landlords,” Wiest said. “What is left —and at issue in this case —are evictions for those tenants who refuse to work with landlords.”
He said Anduril Strategy, LLC, the owner and manager of The Blake at Park Hills, an apartment building in Park Hills, has several tenants with leases of six months or more who refuse to pay their rent.
“Anduril has called all of its tenants who have indicated difficulties in making their payments and the company has offered to place them on a payment plan, reduce their rent, or put them in touch with community resources that can help with rent payments,” Wiest said. “For some of these tenants, these efforts have been ignored.”
Under Beshear’s May 8 executive order, non-paying tenants are not required to prove they have been impacted by COVID-19, arbitrarily shifting the financial burden onto property owners, many of whom were already suffering financial hardships due to the pandemic, said Wiest.
“The ‘No Eviction Orders’ fails to provide for any tribunal or mechanism by which property owners and landlords may obtain redress from a tenant’s refusal to pay, even if they are able to pay, even if they are working and receiving full wages,” Wiest said. “By enacting this order, the governor did everything in his power to eliminate all judicial remedies available to these property owners.”
