KNOw your rights

Your landlord is never allowed to evict you without a court order. If your landlord tells you to leave your home before a judge orders you to, you do not have to move out. These protections apply regardless of your immigration status.

SEND YOUR DECLARATION

The Center for Disease Control prohibits landlords from evicting certain tenants who can’t pay rent through October 3, 2021. To be protected, every adult in your household must send a signed declaration to your landlord. The CDC also provides a Spanish translation of the form and a previous version in Haitian Creole.

Visit covid19evictionforms.com to fill out a declaration online. A Spanish language site is also available.

You are eligible if you:

• do your best to apply for rent and housing assistance from government programs

• If you received a stimulus check or earn no more than $99,000 this year ($198,000 for joint filers)

• can’t pay your full rent because you lost work

• make partial rent payments, when possible

• an eviction would leave you homeless

• you live in an area with substantial or high COVID-19 transmission rates (this currently includes all of Florida)

Read the declaration carefully, it is a crime to sign it if you know the terms do not apply to you.

You do not need to fill out a new form if you have previously submitted one. The protection is in force through October 3 regardless of the expiration date listed on older forms.

Even if you aren’t eligible for the CDC moratorium, you can still reach out to your landlord to make a deal.

Florida courts are processing eviction cases. If your landlord files an eviction case against you, you have a chance to defend yourself, but you must act quickly.

Once you receive papers from the court, you will have five business days to respond in writing and tell the court why you shouldn’t be evicted.

If you send your landlord a declaration, you’ll have a legal defense you can raise in your response.