New statement released from Florida Realtors CEO, Margy Grant:
Please allow this to serve as an update regarding Florida Realtors’ advocacy on behalf of private property owners in Florida. For more than a year we have endured the COVID-19 pandemic and heard from struggling property owners, many who have gone without any assistance or rent relief under the eviction moratorium. Although we are thankful that the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) has just launched a new program, OUR Florida, the Opportunities for Utilities and Rental Assistance, at OURFlorida.com, which has more than $800 million available in federal relief funding to help these struggling tenants and property owners throughout the state, it is not enough. Landlords need their private property rights restored.
As an industry, at the direction of the Legal Action Committee, Florida Realtors® has decided to join the fight for property rights on behalf of so many in the state of Florida. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) eviction moratorium, an unprecedented rule, is unconstitutional, fundamentally unfair, and an overreach of government. Florida Realtors is filing a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida, to end the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) eviction moratorium; the lawsuit is being filed jointly with a specific property owner that has undue problems due to specific tenants. This is not a repetitive lawsuit: Our lawsuit involves a unique set of facts, regarding holdover tenants, that is happening all over Florida.
Attorneys with the Tampa-based office of Carlton Fields, P.A., plan to file the lawsuit tomorrow on our behalf. As always, Florida Realtors stands behind all of Realtor members and continues to advocate on your behalf. Florida Realtors will continue to keep you updated as this effort progresses.
Margy Grant, CAE RCE
CEO
FloridaRealtors®