Last-minute eviction bill protects some renters impacted by Covid-19 for several months.

The “eviction cliff” predicted to happen beginning Sept. 2 for millions of California renters who wouldn't be able to pay their rent due to Covid-19 was averted for the time being and has morphed into an evictions step of sorts, in a compromise bill passed by the legislature in the final hours of the legislative session and immediately signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Assembly Bill 3088, named the “Tenant, Homeowner and Small Landlord Relief and Stabilization Act of 2020,” prohibits landlords from evicting renters who missed rent payments between March 1, 2020, and Jan. 31, 2021, as long as the renters can prove they suffered economic hardship due to the virus.

The bill replaces two earlier bills that proposed different approaches to resolving the evictions challenge for both renters and landlords with mortgages during the pandemic.

Between Sept. 1 and Jan. 31, renters must pay at least 25 percent of their rent to avoid eviction beginning Feb. 1. Beginning March 1, landlords can pursue collecting unpaid rent in small claims court. Although landlord advocates say collecting on such judgments is notoriously difficult when renters have few resources.

Evictions for non-Covid reasons will move forward in courthouses across the state beginning tomorrow.

For landlords, the bill extends anti-foreclosure protections in the Homeowners Bill of Rights to small landlords, among other protections, according to a press release from Newsom’s office. It does not provide an avenue for mortgage forbearance—asking banks to forgive or delay paying a mortgage, as was recommended in an earlier bill, Assembly Bill 1436.

The bill was co-authored by assemblymembers David Chiu, D-San Francisco, and Monique Limón in the Assembly and by senators Anna Caballero, D-Salinas, and Steven Bradford, D-Gardena. Caballero earlier in the session introduced Assembly Bill 1410, which would have given renters more time to pay their rental debt and gave landlords the option to turn lost rent into tax credits which could be sold. The renter’s debt would then be transferred to the state and repaid over a period of years.

In a statement, Newsom called the final bill “just a bridge to a more permanent solution once the federal government finally recognizes its role in stabilizing the housing market. We need a real, federal commitment of significant new funding to assist struggling tenants and homeowners in California and across the nation.”