August 4, 2021: The CDC Eviction Ban is Back for Tenants in Counties with “Substantial and High Levels of Community Transmission of COVID-19”

As of August 4, 2021, The CDC Eviction Ban is Back for Tenants in Counties with “Substantial and High Levels of Community Transmission of COVID-19” - But For Now That Limits the Ban To Only the Hillsborough, Rockingham, and Strafford Counties in New Hampshire - For the Rest of New Hampshire the CDC Ban Remains Expired

As Mark Twain famously said: “If you don’t like the weather in New England now, just wait a few minutes.”  The same can now apparently be said of the CDC eviction ban.

As noted in our latest update on Monday, August 2, 2021, the landscape of legislation, regulations, and executive orders that have affected landlords’ ability to remove non-paying tenants has changed several times since early 2020 and remains complex today. Our attorneys have continually monitored these legal developments and they are developing so rapidly that we already have an additional update to share right now.

On Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that President Biden had asked the CDC on Sunday to consider extending the moratorium for 30 days, but said the agency had “been unable to find legal authority for a new, targeted eviction moratorium.”

Nevertheless, faced with the expiration of the CDC eviction ban on July 31, 2021, President Biden signaled on Tuesday that he would re-instate the ban for certain tenants in heavily impacted COVID transmission areas.  Following that signal, the CDC drafted a new eviction moratorium aimed at preventing evictions of tenants in counties with “substantial and high levels of community transmission.”  The new ban takes effect immediately and extends through October 3, 2021. 

The Associated Press is reporting that over 90% of the United States population lives in the affected areas.  However, based on the CDC’s “COVID Data Tracker,” most  of New Hampshire’s counties do not currently face that level of transmission and are accordingly not covered by the new ban.  That link allows users to select their state and county to see if their county faces “substantial” or “high” levels of community transmission.  As the COVID Data Tracker shows, only the New Hampshire counties of Hillsborough, Rockingham, and Strafford face those levels of community transmission, and accordingly, for the time being, evictions can proceed in all other counties of New Hampshire.

Caution is still important for landlords seeking to finally exercise their legal right to evict non-paying tenants.  According to the CDC’s most recent order, “[i]f a U.S. county that is not covered by this Order as of August 3, 2021, later experiences substantial or high levels of community transmission while this Order is in effect, then that county will become subject to this Order as of the date the county begins experiencing substantial or high levels of community transmission.”  That means counties not covered by the new CDC ban may later become covered by it if their COVID 19 transmission levels increase.

For all landlords in Coos, Grafton, Carroll, Belknap, Sullivan, Merrimack, and Cheshire, counties who have tenants with unpaid rent, the time to commence eviction proceedings is right now.  In this fast changing area of the law your right to evict non-paying tenants may very well change with each passing minute.  If you do face such a situation and you need legal assistance to address a non-paying tenant, Primmer stands ready to assist you with the assertion of your legal rights.