I saw a letter to editor that California tenants, landlord’s loans, etc may be excused under state law as being a force majeure event. California civil code §1511 was cited as an example...one can google it. Is anyone seeing something like that in there location or situation? Disclaimer: No legal advice offered here..see your own adviser
Answers
I'm pretty sure foreclosures due to non-payment linked to the pandemic have been banned nationally. I know many localities around California have banned evictions for non-payment of rent if the tenant has lost their job or income due to the pandemic, and the state Judicial Council has ordered the entire California court system to stop holding hearings on evictions (the Judicial Council currently is considering whether to lift that hold on eviction cases in the next few weeks). Landlords are being provided tax benefits to help them. Mind you, the ban on evictions for non-payment due to the pandemic does not forgive the money owed, it simply delays the necessity to pay it now. All the orders state a time period by which the money will have to be paid anyway, which has raised fear of mass evictions once that deadline to pay arrives. And that in a state that has far and away more homeless people than any other state. Los Angeles has triple the number of homeless people all over everywhere as the next highest locality in the country. Los Angeles County has around 60,000 homeless people even before the pandemic hit.
But specific to that statute, reading it, it does seem to do the same as these emergency orders are doing:
1511: The want of performance of an obligation, or of an offer of performance, in whole or in part, or any delay therein, is excused by the following causes, to the extent to which they operate: ...That sounds to me like it can protect the debtor -- unless they have agreed to the contrary, as in a lease or other agreement. That "agreement" could leave many people unprotected. But I believe these emergency orders are overriding any such lease or other agreement.
2. When it is prevented or delayed by an irresistible, superhuman cause, ... unless the parties have expressly agreed to the contrary; ...
