Keeping Up with Regulations on Evictions and Collections

The pandemic continues to affect some multifamily renters’ ability (or willingness) to pay rent. But what can you do when regulations limit your options for collections and evictions? In a recent webcast, Jay Parsons of RealPage interviewed three multifamily executives to learn how their companies are handling non-payment of rent in these tricky times. Playing by the rules In some cases, it’s hard to even know exactly what the latest regulations are covering collections and evictions. The regulations can differ not only per state but even in different counties in a state. Some moratoria are set to expire over the summer; in others, they extend over a longer period. Maria Banks, President, and CEO of AMLI Property Management had this to say about the confusing situation: “It is very challenging. I would say it’s almost a full-time job for a number of people. We are in nine different markets. Sometimes the county has different jurisdictional requirements, and sometimes a municipality’s regulations may differ from the county ones. The rules might affect whether you can charge month-to-month fees, when you can send an account to collections and when you can evict. Keeping up with it all is very time consuming and challenging.” Tammy Freiling of Kairoi Residential says her company has been depending on their legal eagles. “We’re blessed to have an outstanding leader overseeing our legal and risk management group,” she says. “What I’d say to those who don’t have an internal resource is that there are a lot of very capable law firms out there with people dedicated to monitoring all of this.” “Not all of the government websites are user-friendly,” she adds. “They don’t always update them promptly, and the information you need can be hard to locate. So it really does take someone devoting a lot of their time to keeping up with the regulations....