NASHVILLE, Tenn.–A rental property management company has filed suit to stop a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule requiring notice be given to delinquent residential renters about a nationwide eviction ban, alleging it is counter to rulings that have found the ban invalid.
The Property Management Connection (PMC) and others filed the lawsuit in Nashville federal court on the same day the rule took effect.
As CUToday.info reported, the CFPB rule requires debt collectors working for landlords to tell renters they may be eligible for relief under an eviction moratorium the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put in place related to the coronavirus pandemic.
In its lawsuit, Property Management Connection argues that such notices would be untrue, since the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has found the moratorium unenforceable.
In a statement, Caleb Kruckenberg, an attorney at the conservative legal group New Civil Liberties Alliance and who is representing the plaintiffs, said the Bureau’s "rushed and sloppy rule is just a political statement masquerading as the law."
Nine-Million Delinquent
The CFPB issued the rule in April requiring debt collectors, including attorneys for landlords who file eviction cases, to give renters notice of their potential eligibility for relief under the eviction moratorium. Failure to do so violates the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, according to the CFPB.
U.S. Census Bureau data recently indicated approximately nine-million U.S. households are behind on rent as of December 2020.
Landlords in a number of states have challenged the ban and won rulings in their favor that enforcement is illegal, but courts have to date stopped short of blocking the CDC from enforcing the moratorium, legal analysts said.
The case is The Property Management Connection LLC et al. v. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau et al., U.S. District Court, Middle District of Tennessee, No. 21-cv-00359.