City Council for the City of West Sacramento approves a temporary moratorium on residential and commercial tenant evictions relating to hardships caused by COVID-19

A few days ago, on March 18, 2020, the City of West Sacramento's City Council adopted its own temporary moratorium on residential and commercial tenant evictions, provided those tenants suffer loss of wages or loss of revenue relating to COVID-19. This is not a free pass for tenants to skip rent. Tenants who can afford rent SHOULD PAY THE RENT. This ordinance allows financially affected tenants to defer rent payments until after the public health emergency period is over. The hope is that the tenants should be able to return to work at that time, or should be able to reopen non-essential businesses that were required to close.

Details of the new ordinance:

• Effective Immediately, but not retroactively applied if tenant was already delinquent in rent
• Moratorium applies to evictions due to nonpayment of rent due to COVID-19
• For residential tenants, either: 
• The tenant is sick with COVID-19 or has to care for a member of the household who has COVID 19; 
• The tenant experienced a lay-off, loss of hours, or other income reduction due to COVID-19; 
• The tenant complied with a recommendation from a government agency to stay at home, self-quarantine, or avoid congregating with others; or 
• Tenant had to miss work to care for a home-bound school-age child. 
• For commercial tenants, either: 
• Commercial tenant’s business was required to close in compliance with a recommendation from a government agency; 
• Commercial tenant experienced a substantial loss of business resulting from a state, federal or local emergency declaration; 
• Commercial business owner is sick with COVID-19 or has to care for a member of the household who has COVID-19.
• Tenant must do all of the following: 
• Notify landlord in writing before rent is due that the tenant has a valid reason for delayed payment 
• Provide verifiable documentation of a covered reason 
• Pays the portion of rent owed that the tenant is able to pay based on the amount of income received. For example, if the tenant owes $1,500 in rent and the tenant suffered a $500 wage loss in March, the tenant would pay the landlord $1,000 for April rent. 
• Rent is due to landlord at the conclusion of the moratorium:
• Residential and commercial tenants who were afforded eviction protection under this Ordinance shall have up to 120 days after this Ordinance terminates to pay their landlord all unpaid rent. 
• During that 120-day period, the protections against eviction found in this Ordinance apply for such tenants.
• Landlord and Tenant may voluntarily agree to an alternate timeline for payment of rent due in arrears. 

This ordinance is an emergency measure that is in effect immediately through at least May 31st.

It is very similar to the eviction moratorium ordinance enacted by the City of Sacramento.

Here is a link to the ordinance language

Here is a link to a FAQ about the eviction moratorium.

Here is a link to the Delay of Rent Notification Form.