April 20, 2020:- Today Governor Charlie Baker signed the eviction-moratorium bill that will last as long as the state of emergency that he proclaimed on March 10, plus 45 days. What is the duration of the state of emergency? How long is a piece of string?
Unlike Order No. 13 (the business-closure order that expires on May 4, 2020) the state of emergency has no end date. By its terms the proclamation “shall remain in effect until notice is given, pursuant to my judgment, that the STATE OF EMERGENCY no longer exists” (all caps in original).
The new law says that the Governor may extend the moratorium in 90-day increments, so long as he does not extend it to a date more than 45 days after the end of the emergency. If, for the sake of argument, the Governor terminates the emergency on June 30, the earliest date on which a landlord could issue a notice to quit for non-payment of rent would be August 14 and the Housing Court would not have a hearing on the summary process summons and complaint until September at the earliest. Given the backlog of cases, further delays are inevitable.
The conclusion of the moratorium depends on when the emergency expires, and right now that day looks distant. There is no reason to assume that it will be in June. Because although the pandemic may be on the wane, economically we are in tatters.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), by the end of 2020 the global economy will have contracted by 3%, compared with 0.1% in the recession of 2009. Unemployment in the United States is already at 22 million (at least) and likely to go up. Hospitals are laying off workers. The price of oil has fallen below zero. If there wasn’t an emergency on March 10, there certainly is now.
But even if the Governor does lift the state of emergency and lets the moratorium expire 45 days thereafter, that might not mean much. The Legislature could choose to extend the moratorium by amending the statute. That seems more likely than not.
In view of its popularity among the majority and the likely demands by tenants’ advocates for an extension, it would take real political courage to leave the statue in its present form and let the moratorium expire on time. In the language of politics, the definition of “temporary” is almost infinitely elastic.
Peter Vickery, Esq., 