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Comment by spaceflunky | Hacker News Reader

>but now it feels like the government can basically commandeer your property at will.

This is one of the scariest outcomes of the eviction moratorium. It is basically solidified the fact that you own nothing and the government can take and do with "your" property as it pleases when it pleases.

>you are just going to be left with large corporate landlords who are diversified enough that they can take the risk.

Again, so very true. Why do people think that big corporate landlords are going to be better than the small mom and pops they killed off? Soon everyone who rents will be paying to large kafkaesque monolith who makes you wait on the phone for 5 hours every time you have a problem.

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> This is one of the scariest outcomes of the eviction moratorium. It is basically solidified the fact that you own nothing and the government can take and do with "your" property as it pleases when it pleases.

Well, but it's property you've rented out to someone else. IMO, once you've done that, it doesn't truly belong to just you, even if the deed is in your name. Someone else has set up their life in your space—and that's why most localities have laws about when you can evict someone and the process you have to go through.

> which is why most localities have laws about when you can evict someone and the process you have to go through.

Never has there been a law that says you cannot evict somebody after 18 months of not paying rent.

I think people who continue to blame business owners are being rather obtuse and dishonest about their stance.

>Never has there been a law that says you cannot evict somebody after 18 months of not paying rent.

I used to work in mortgage default - and yes some foreclosures. There are some really weird state laws that extend eviction protections.

In New York City, if a renter has an agreement with the person with the mortgage - the bank can foreclose on the house, but we must honor the rent agreement. We had someone rent their house to their mom for $500/month, we "got the house", but the mom got to stay as long as she paid us $500/month in rent

In Massachusetts (iirc), after filing the "first notice of default", banks need to wait well over a year before finalizing the foreclosure.

Foreclosures are ultimately handled at the county court house - and the county makes the rules. They county tells the bank "fill out this paperwork". After the 2008 recession, some counties would change the COLOR of the form and then tell banks "sorry, wrong form, start over" and let the tenants stay in their house.

I'm not opposed to any of these situations, I'm merely mentioning them because local governments can and DO place long protections for tenants.

I agree, I just think extrapolating "you own nothing and the government can take and do with 'your' property as it pleases" is going more than a little far!

Honestly, a better example of that would be eminent domain, which existed long before COVID. (I so happen to be in favor of eminent domain too, but now we're getting truly off topic!)

> Honestly, a better example of that would be eminent domain, which existed long before COVID

Eminent domain has a pretty rigorous, well-defined process (or at least I hope it does). Saying "OMG COVID, NOBODY GETS TO EVICT" over the course of 1 week with absolutely fuck-all thought given to how to unwind such a policy.... totally different beast. Especially given it was only supposed to be "two weeks to flatten the curve to protect healthcare".

And yeah, without eminent domain absolutely no large public works project would ever get built. There will always be somebody, somewhere who will block a large project no matter how many concessions to make for them. Society needs ways to route around that kind of stubbornness.

In my country you can ask a non-paying renter to leave after 3 missed monthly payments, but to actually get him out if he does not want to, that requires a court decision, and courts are slow. It may take months or years.

Slow justice is another form of injustice.

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