*The intake application form should only be used if the tenant has already received Court papers. Tenants that have only received a 3-day notice requesting payment of rent or which are experiencing negative living conditions, should not complete the intake form, but should call the Legal Aid hotline at 954.736.2431.

Important

On August 31, 2020, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis extended the application of Executive Order 20-180 suspending until the end of September the final action of an eviction for lack of payment of rent against tenants affected by COVID-19. In other words, even if these tenants lose the eviction litigation they cannot be removed from the place they are renting until October 1, 2020.

On Friday, September 4, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-CDC, a federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services CDC issued an Order stopping until December 31, 2020, evictions for lack of payment of rent against tenants affected by COVID-19.

To obtain the benefit of the new CDC moratorium the tenant should complete and send to the landlord a CDC Declaration form indicating that they have been affected by COVID-19 and that they are doing the best effort to either get rent assistance or pay their rent. Once they do that, tenants facing litigation should immediately file in Court a “Motion to Stay Eviction” requesting the Judge to suspend the eviction until the end of this year.

Tenants should be aware that landlord will challenge this CDC moratorium indicating that the CDC does not have the authority to create this moratorium; therefore, tenants should follow these events very closely.

Sample CDC Declaration form – We recommend that tenants send CDC Declarations via certified mail, as well as via e-mail. This way they will have two ways to prove in Court that they complied with the CDC requirement.