Landlords using harassment, threats to force out tenants during COVID-19

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Sada Jones anxiously paces inside her apartment every time she catches a glimpse of her building's maintenance workers through a damaged glass patio door half boarded up with scrap wood that she says her landlord refuses to repair.

Jones, 23, a hotel cook, has been unable to make rent payments on her New Orleans-area apartment since being furloughed on March 19 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, she alleges, her landlord began using aggressive tactics to force her out, including cutting off her utilities and sending maintenance workers to demand she leave.

"I'm scared because I don't want to move with the situation that's going on with COVID, but I also don't want to live in these conditions," she said. "I'm constantly anxious and paranoid about what they'll do next. I don't feel safe."

Despite efforts by many jurisdictions to halt evictions either through formal moratoriums or court closures, some landlords have taken matters into their own hands with illegal "self-help" evictions and have been harassing and intimidating tenants like Jones who are unable to pay rent — many due to pandemic-related job loss — in an effort to get them out.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/landlords-using-harassment-threats-to-force-out-tenants-during-covid-19/ar-BB15surT?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=DELLDHP

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1. Kick

When NBC News emailed Jones' landlord, Joshua Bruno, to ask about her allegations — specifically that he refused to fix the broken door, cut off some utilities to the apartment and had staff intimidate Jones — Bruno responded with more than a dozen points, calling the allegations "false," claiming Jones was "trespassing" and that there was an "open police investigation into her breaking back into her apartment."

Jones and attorneys with Southeast Louisiana Legal Services say Bruno's accusations are baseless and false. Adams said she has repeatedly requested police reports, video or any other documentation regarding a police investigation into an alleged break in and has received nothing from Bruno.

While self-help evictions are outlawed in Louisiana, Bruno is also barred from evicting tenants under the federal Cares Act, Adams said. The law, which was enacted to aid individuals and businesses harmed by the pandemic, prohibits landlords who receive federal loans or assistance — including Bruno, who has a Fannie Mae loan on the property — from initiating eviction proceedings until July 25.

Jones is not alone in her allegations against Bruno. Other renters living in Bruno's units also claim they've been subjected to self-help tactics after losing jobs amid the pandemic (Bruno has maintained that his actions were appropriate and that his company follows state and federal laws).