Eviction cases in Maricopa County down before ban ended

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Tenant rights activists hold a demonstration outside the home of New York State Senator Brian Kavanagh to protest what they claim to be inadequate legislative relief for renters during the COVID-19 pandemic and to call for the cancellation of rent, F

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PHOENIX - Preliminary figures show that eviction filings in Arizona’s largest county were trending down in August before the Supreme Court issued a decision that ended a coronavirus era moratorium on lockouts in most of the US.

The early numbers from the Maricopa County Justice Courts show that there were 2,989 eviction cases filed in August, down from the 3,623 cases filed in July.

Although the August case numbers were up from the same month last year, when 2,168 cases were filed, they were less than half the 6,243 cases filed in August 2019.

Although many people have predicted a tsunami of evictions, court spokesman Scott Davis has said it’s still too early to know what impact the end of the moratorium will have on eviction cases.

He notes that not all cases end in lockout and are sometimes worked out between the tenant and landlord either with a repayment plan or the disbursement of government emergency relief funds.

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority last month blocked the Biden administration from enforcing a temporary ban placed on the evictions of people who said they had failed to pay their rent for reasons related to the coronavirus pandemic.