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Oscar Rivera Shares Insight on Residential and Commercial Evictions in Today’s Sun Sentinel

Siegfried Rivera
June 2, 2020

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The firm’s Oscar R. Rivera was quoted in today’s South Florida Sun Sentinel in the newspaper’s article on the status of the residential evictions moratorium headlined “Gov. Ron DeSantis Extends Florida’s Evictions Ban for One More Month to July 1.”  The article reads:

. . . The moratorium pertains only to residential properties and not to commercial real estate such as office buildings, warehouses, free-standing retail shops and shopping malls.

Oscar Rivera, an attorney at the South Florida law firm of Siegfried Rivera, said Monday that clients who operate apartment buildings have not seen an outpouring of delinquencies since the coronavirus pandemic upended the economy. He surmised that is probably a result of loans and grant money flowing from the public sector to help keep businesses afloat.

“On the residential side, a lot of our clients who are owners of residential properties have been collecting a large percentage of rents,” he said.  Commercial landlords, Rivera added, have been working out delays in rent payments for those tenants who need them.

“We represent all sorts of landlords and across the board; we have not seen a significant uptick in any kinds of defaults,” he said.  “People are trying to look through this situation in the most favorable way possible.” . . .

The article concludes by noting that Florida’s courts have issued rulings affirming federal protections for as many as 250,000 tenants in South Florida.  The orders require landlords seeking evictions for nonpayment to disclose to the court whether their tenants receive federal rent subsidies or whether the tenants’ apartments are being purchased with federally backed mortgage loans.  If so, those tenants cannot be removed from their apartments until at least Aug. 23, according to the Corovavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act passed in March. The act bars eviction proceedings against tenants covered by the protections for 120 days until July 25 and prohibits removal of tenants for 30 days after that date.

Our firm salutes Oscar for sharing his insights on the current state of residential and commercial evictions with the readers of the South Florida Sun SentinelClick here to read the complete article in the newspaper’s website.