Link | Publication: Brian Frosh for The Baltimore Sun | Date: Dec. 11, 2020
Excerpt
The landlord’s calculus is simple. Why rely on traditional methods of rent collection when the weight and resources of the judiciary can be invoked so easily instead? Eighty-four percent of Baltimore City eviction actions are filed with only one month’s rent due. Worse, many landlords file as soon as tenants are a few days late. This practice has made courts “more like an extension of the residential rental business than an impartial arbitrator between landlords and tenants,” according to one academic study on the issue.
Maryland’s low barriers for filing eviction actions make it an outlier. Eviction filing rates in neighboring states range from 5.3% in Pennsylvania to 16.9% in Delaware. Rates in New Jersey, the District of Columbia and Virginia range from 12.5% to 15.7%. Maryland’s rate in excess of 80% dwarfs them all.
Our eviction process is out of balance and unfair to tenants. I intend to ask Maryland lawmakers to increase our eviction filing fee to at least the national average of $120. We should also make landlords provide notice of their intent to evict before deploying the machinery of judicial process. We must preserve the judiciary’s appropriate role in adjudicating legitimate eviction cases. But eviction actions should not be used to turn our court system into a debt collection agency for landlords.
Eviction is not simply a condition of poverty. Rather, it’s a root cause, perpetuating a cycle that can last for generations. It means loss, not just of a home, but also of possessions, school, community, employment, mental and physical health, and the ability to find another place to live.
Serial eviction filings launch this pernicious process at the first sign of late payment. They create an ever-looming threat, like eviction itself, that inflicts long-lasting harms on health, family unity, job retention and future housing options.