How Landlords Routinely Evade Accountability for Unlawful Evictions That Push Renters into Poverty and Homelessness
Cindy was in her mid-20s when it happened. The new corporate management team filed into the expansive historical building, which had been converted into affordable rental apartments, with their chests puffed out. The people who lived there, including Cindy, had been residents for years.
The place was charming but not up to its full potential. It was once an affluent estate, but was now desperately in need of a paint job. The courtyards were poorly maintained. The tennis courts were bits of broken net across a tarnished blacktop. The antiquated statues before each gate were chipped and faded. But this was all part of the allure.
The building exuded a vintage vibe that architects and historians loved, oddly resembling a rundown castle, like something straight out of the pages of Beauty and the Beast. The lobby and library were gems to behold, and despite being in a prominent section of the city, the building was surrounded by so many trees that the grounds smelled like cinnamon. Perhaps that’s why it felt like home.
“Don’t get too comfortable here now,” sighed Cindy’s neighbor across the hall. “I’ve dealt with this company before,” he shook his head. “Bad news.”
In under a week, the new company had completely taken over. They planned to turn the affordable homes into luxury apartments, where they could earn top dollar. All they had to do now was get rid of the people who already lived there. That might be hard for a company that was operating within the limitations of the law. But for this corporate investment firm, it was as simple as mailing out fake overdue utility bills to dozens of residents, and then offering to let them break their leases in exchange for forgiving the fake debt.
Much to Cindy’s shock, most of the residents went along with it, leaving their homes abruptly, even though they knew their utility bills were already paid in full. There were whispers in the hallway that fighting the charges would be more trouble than it was worth, and that this company could make it difficult for you to rent in the future if you gave them any trouble. Several longtime tenants left, but Cindy stayed and fought the falsified charges.
She walked into the courtroom alone, and although the landlord had a legal representative, Cindy had five years’ worth of utility bill receipts. The case was thrown out of court. Oddly, the real estate company faced no legal repercussions for creating the trumped-up charge. Cindy shrugged it off, thinking she had won and could return to the home she adored.
The elevator shot up to the twelfth floor without the usual rick and tick. Now that the building was expensive, the elevator had been repaired. The lights in the hallway shone brightly with new bulbs. Gone were the days of dim hallway lighting. Cindy put her key in her door and entered her apartment. She turned the light switch in the hallway on, but the lights did not come on. She tried the living room and kitchen. Zilch. It was as if her apartment were an island cut off from the rest of the refurbishments, a dark island with no running water and an undeniable chill. All of the utilities were off. She felt alarmed and unsure of what to do next.
The following morning, the landlord assured her she’d have to go back to court again if she wanted the utilities put back on. The legal battle could take months, even years. How long could she live like this? He questioned. How cold will the winter be?
Then he offered her the same deal he had before the fraudulent charges.
“You can break your lease now without a penalty, or go to court again to try and get your utilities on,” he said.
Cindy had been homeless before and couldn’t handle the thought of going back to court or surviving a winter without any heat, let alone winding up back on the streets. She had a place to go if she left now. The future was uncertain. Like the others, Cindy resigned to her fate and left, although her lease was far from over. She believed this would be the end. It was merely the beginning.
Months later, the harassing phone calls from collection agencies began. Creditors insisted she had been evicted and owed months of back rent and unpaid utility bills. Everything about the eviction was illegal – from the fraudulent utility charges to the eviction itself. She had not been evicted. She had been intimidated out of her home by a manipulative landlord. She fought the eviction charge on her credit report, but it kept showing back up under the names of different collection agencies.
Seven years passed, and the eviction should have expired, but it appeared again, this time with a new forged date. It followed her for 13 years, ruining her chances at optimal rentals. It was as if the more the landlord broke the law, the higher the penalty was for his former tenant.
Experts claim this is no accident. It is precisely the point.
“Landlords are rarely held accountable for illegal evictions because the goal is to intimidate tenants into silence,” said renowned attorney Leah Goodridge in an exchange with Invisible People.
Attorney Goodridge boasts over a decade of experience with housing law, cases, advocacy, and policy. She claims self–help evictions are just the tip of the iceberg regarding the illegal actions committed against tenants by their landlords. Not only will corrupt landlords stoop to shutting off lights, electricity, running water, Internet service, and heat without due process, but they are also notorious for committing egregious acts of violence against renters on their properties, up to and including murder.
“Oftentimes, tenants are scared to return to their apartments because they think the landlord who illegally forced them out might harm them. That’s not an extreme thought. Every other week, there’s a news story of a landlord killing their tenant,” explained Attorney Goodridge.
There Are Laws to Protect Tenants, but Investigations Show They’re Rarely Enforced
It’s incredulous to imagine that a major real estate holder with a gaping portfolio could be so brazen as to commit fraud against dozens of tenants by pretending they all have outstanding utility bills. It’s hard to believe that during the eviction moratorium, at a time when national law prohibited this action, hundreds of thousands of evictions were illegally filed against tenants, particularly low and middle–income renters. But that is what the data shows. Now, some landlords are suing the US government because the eviction moratorium existed in the first place. They claim it was unconstitutional and demand repayment in the form of billions of dollars.
Who will stop these landlords if the handful of laws that favor tenants aren’t enforced, and the landlords are entitled to sue everyone, even the US government?
Business Insider conducted a deep dive into the practice of illegal lockouts and found thousands of 911 phone calls in which tenants reported being outside, unable to enter their homes, despite not having been legally evicted. Under US law, most situations require a formal court case and process before a tenant can be locked out. Yet, landlords notoriously bypass the legalities and take matters into their own hands. These lockouts often happen in plain sight, meaning the landlords are willing to break the law openly. The investigation showed there were rarely any legal repercussions when they did so.
Key Findings: Only One in Ten Lockout Phone Calls Led to a Police Report
Business Insider did an in-depth analysis of 8,268 911 calls about lockouts since 2020. The phone calls took place in the following four cities:
- Chicago
- Atlanta
- Miami
- Houston
They found that although local officials instructed tenants to call the police to handle illegal evictions, only about one in ten of such complaints led to the police filing a report.
In Phoenix, such calls were labeled “no action required,” and in Houston, officers implied these matters were civil as opposed to criminal. The danger of referring to a landlord breaking the law as civil and a tenant breaking the law as criminal is very telling.
Further investigation showed that lockout crimes led to significantly fewer arrests than other property crimes. In Chicago, for example, 6,300 people were arrested for shoplifting, and 86% of shoplifting complaints yielded a police report. However, only 14% of lockout complaints yielded a police report, and only eight landlords were arrested amid thousands of calls.
Illegal Evictions Come At a Higher Price Than Shoplifted Goods
In the data showing 6,300 Chicago-based shoplifting arrests, the median price of stolen goods was under $300. The cost of an illegal eviction, on the other hand, can be thousands of dollars, and the one thing Americans value most, their freedom.
For example, if a tenant is illegally locked out of their apartment, they will first have to pay a lawyer or face the landlord alone in a courtroom to sue for the damage. 90% of landlords have legal representation, while only 10% of tenants can say the same. Furthermore, win, lose, or draw, most states do not require the landlord to reimburse the tenant for legal fees. Meanwhile, the illegally evicted tenant, already distraught, must immediately find a new place to live, a task that often requires a large lump sum of savings and a high credit rating.
Failure to find a new home and acquire a lawyer can result in subsequent homelessness, which increases the tenant’s risk of becoming arrested for engaging in life-sustaining activities. Laws that criminalize “vagrancy” or public camping make homeless people 11 times more likely to be arrested than their housed counterparts.
The risk of arrest is only the beginning. Homeless people are also at an increased risk of:
- Getting robbed
- Being raped or sexually assaulted
- Having their kids removed and forced into the system
- Having their pets taken away
- Losing their belongings to sweeps and encampment evictions
- Losing their employment
- Losing their lives
*On average, homeless people die three decades sooner than people with stable housing.
“Evictions are disorienting,” Leah Goodridge explained. “When I represented tenants, one common reaction was shock. Many had lived in the same apartment for years and would tell me they didn’t want any lawyer to be too adversarial with the landlord because they believed the case was a minor misunderstanding.”
“But soon enough, their facial expressions would change as we stood in court and they realized this was an eviction case. Their landlord already has an attorney. And they want them out. Their years of friendly chats don’t trump business or profits,” Goodridge continued. “They’re thinking this is just a misunderstanding until they realize that this is serious. They are out on the street. Many don’t go after the landlord because they spend so much energy recovering from the eviction. They have to find a new place in a matter of days.”
Human Lives Are At Risk When Landlords Break the Law. Tell Your Legislators to Prioritize Tenant Rights
As nearly half of all renters now face the hardship of rent burden, tenant rights must be respected and upheld. Tell your legislators that landlords should not be operating as if they are above the law. We need legislation that makes housing an irrevocable human right for all.