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Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Democrats tee up eviction reform Lombardo vetoed two years ago
Democratic Assemblymembers and eviction reform legislation sponsors Erica Roth (at podium) and Max Carter (applauding in background) at a press event in Carson City Wednesday. (Nevada Assembly Democrats photo) Upon returning home to Las Vegas from a trip from Los Angeles, Lousetta Keyes found a 7-day 'pay rent or quit' paper eviction notice taped to her apartment front door. There wasn't anything Keyes could do since it was late at night, she told state lawmakers at Wednesday's Assembly Judiciary Committee hearing as she recounted the recent experience. After a restless night spent worrying about why she was facing eviction, she went to her rental office first thing in the morning. That's when she was told the notices stemmed from being short $32 on rent. Keyes said because of surprise 'junk fees' attached to her monthly rental payment, she had no idea she had an outstanding amount. Let alone a number so little. Instead of going through a court process to seek an eviction for unpaid rent, Nevada's summary eviction process requires tenants be the first to file with the court after a 7-day notice is placed on their door. The basic notice template is easily accessible online to landlords and 'all they have to do is hit print,' Keyes said. 'They put a 7-day notice on my door for $32,' she said. 'That's not fair. If they had to file with the court they would have had to call me and ask why my rent was short.' Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoed legislation in 2023 that would have reformed Nevada's eviction laws, considered some of the nation's most tenant-hostile. The bill was among numerous tenant protection and eviction protection bills he vetoed. Assembly Bill 283 would once again seek to restructure the process for filing an eviction. Democratic Assemblymember Max Carter, the bill's sponsor, said he not only wanted to give eviction reform another chance. He also wants to give Lombardo a 'second chance to do what's right for Nevadans, all Nevadans, not just corporate landlords.' Nevada has a 'summary' eviction process that allows landlords to evict tenants within days unless the tenant files a challenge to the eviction in court. That is the opposite of most states, where landlords must first file with a court to execute an eviction. Lombardo's veto message on the summary eviction bill said the legislation would 'impose additional and unnecessary delays' and costs 'make our summary eviction process more time-consuming' on property owners. The bill is about rebalanding a lopsided system, Carter said while presenting his legislation to the committee Wednesday. 'If you've ever attended eviction court, and Las Vegas Justice Court in particular, it is so tilted against tenants that it's ridiculous,' Carter said. 'It's shameful to watch. We need to do something to restore the balance.' AB 283 was one of two bills heard Wednesday by the Assembly Judiciary Committee seeking to address the impact of Nevada's eviction system. Assembly Bill 201 seeks to expand efforts to automatically seal eviction records. 'These records can negatively impact credit scores making it difficult to secure rental housing, employment and even access to loans,' said Democratic Assemblymember Erica Roth, the bill's sponsor. 'Even when the outcome of an eviction favors a tenant, a single eviction record can severely limit a person's ability to find safe and affordable housing, trapping them in a cycle of homelessness or substandard living conditions.' Members of the Housing Justice Alliance, which include organizations such as Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, Make the Road Nevada and ACLU of Nevada, called on lawmakers to support both bills. 'With our cost of living crisis and lack of tenant protections, we have an eviction-to-unhoused pipeline,' said Ben Iness. These bills are 'an important step to remedy that.' Real estate and property management groups opposed both bills. 'I think changing the process is not going to stop evictions from happening,' John Sande, a lobbyist for the Nevada State Apartment Association said in opposition to AB 283. 'The cause of eviction is the cost of housing.' There were at least 85,000 summary eviction cases filed last year in Nevada, said Jonathan Norman, the advocacy, outreach and policy director for the Nevada Coalition of Legal Service Providers. But that figure 'does not account for the number of cases where somebody receives a notice but the case does not proceed,' he said. The current law requiring tenants to file an answer to an eviction notice with the court — instead of having the landlords file with the court first — not only creates a burdensome process for renters. It also prevents the state from assessing the full scope of the eviction crisis. AB 283 would require landlords to file with the court after giving tenants a 7-day notice. Once the landlord filed with the court, the tenant would then have 7 judicial days – days the court is open – to respond. If a tenant responds to the notice before those 7 days are up, a court hearing is scheduled. But if the tenant doesn't respond to the court notice, an eviction is granted. 'The big shifts are when the landlord files a complaint and the tenant has a period to respond,' Norman said. The bill, he added, would bring the state in accordance with 'every civil process in the United States of America.' 'This is the only process where a tenant has to initiate the lawsuit against themselves,' he said. 'I just think of how absurd that sounds.' Republican Assemblyman Toby Yurek asked whether the bill would create unintended consequences by driving small landlords out of the housing market. 'You mentioned corporate rights landlords that certainly could absorb some of these costs that are going to be and delays that are going to incur with this process or this policy choice,' he said. 'My concern is for smaller landlords.' Carter said that in the states where landlords, not tenants, have to make the eviction filing, 'this isn't an onerous burden on small landlords.' Though an eviction happens in a single moment, 'the consequences last for years,' said Norman with the Nevada Coalition of Legal Service Providers. Nevada law already allows tenants to petition a court to seal an eviction record. AB 201 would seek to further protect renters from the economic onus of having a Nevada eviction on their record. The bill allows for court records to be automatically sealed one year after the eviction is granted or when a case is dismissed. 'If someone has been unlawfully evicted, they shouldn't have to face barriers to getting back on their feet and into housing,' Roth said. 'We are in a housing crisis and experiencing record numbers of people facing homelessness. We are seeing families on the verge of eviction every single month.' Experiencing an eviction and facing homelessness is already traumatic enough for people, Roth said. Landlords could oppose the records being sealed. If they don't, the record would be automatically sealed, Norman said. Landlords still have other tools, such as income requirements, to determine whether to rent to a tenant, he added. Republican Assemblymember Lisa Cole asked about how the bill would address tenants who receive more than one eviction over several years. She proposed amending the bill to include 'a limit where no more than two times can a record be sealed in five years.' Norman said they have had clients who have faced nine evictions in less than two years simply because 'landlords will (issue) multiple evictions within the same month.' The committee didn't take action on either bill.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
With Musk & Trump targeting CFPB, medical debt consumer protections fall to state, legislators say
'Who knows if there is even going to be a CFPB by June,' said Assemblyman Max Carter. (Photo: Richard Bednarski/Nevada Current) People shouldn't be 'pushed into ruin' if they get sick and are unable to pay medical debt, says Democratic Assemblymember Max Carter. Carter has introduced legislation to prohibit health care providers and collection agencies from reporting medical debt to consumer reporting agencies. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced during the Biden administration a regulation to prevent medical debt from being included on credit reports. It was supposed to take effect March 17. However, it is uncertain if those regulations will remain intact under President Donald Trump. The CFPB has been targeted by Elon Musk's so-called DOGE, and Trump this month ordered the CFPB, which finalized the rule on medical debt, to stop working in efforts to disable the agency. A Texas judge issued a 90-day stay on the rule that prohibits medical debt from being included on consumer reports, delaying the effective date from March to June 15. 'Who knows if there is even going to be a CFPB by June,' Carter said during a press call Wednesday. Assembly Bill 204, which is being pushed by Carter and was heard Monday by the Assembly Committee on Commerce and Labor, would prevent collection agencies from threatening to arrest people for debt, obtain a lien against a primary residence, seek to foreclose on home, or garnish wages. Under the proposed legislation, health care providers aren't allowed to engage in 'any extraordinary collection action until 180 days after the first bill' has been sent to the consumer. 'These are common sense solutions that help patients pay back their debt while still allowing hospitals and doctors to collect payments,' Carter said during the committee hearing. Adam Zarrin, director of state government affairs for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and Peter Aldous, a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, presented the bill to the committee alongside Carter. If passed, the bill wouldn't take effect until October and would only apply to debt incurred afterward. Carter, along with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, held a press conference Wednesday to discuss the legislation. They released results from a survey on medical debt in Nevada conducted by the nonpartisan research firm PerryUndem and said medical debt is a nonpartisan issue burdening Nevadans across the state. The survey of 823 registered voters interviewed in November found that more than four in 10 had delayed or foregone care because of debt, while six in 10 are concerned they could go into medical debt. Another 14% of those surveyed said they filed for bankruptcy because of medical debt. The survey didn't ask people the average cost of their medical debt. Zarrin said a 2023 survey from the Urban Institute estimated '7% of Nevadans have debt that's in collection and the medium amount is about $1,800.' 'That is just the medical debt that has been sent to collections,' he added. 'That doesn't count debt that's on a payment plan or still owed to a provider. I think there is still a large amount out there that we cannot quantify.' Between the rising costs of health care along with 'a highly consolidated health care system,' the likelihood of medical debt is growing, Zarrin told state lawmakers Monday. Even people able to purchase insurance, including those who purchase plans on the Silver State Health Care Exchange, are sometimes met with high deductibles and out of pocket expenses, he said. Medical care can be even more costly for people with chronic illnesses, like cancer. In the first year of being diagnosed with leukemia, Zarrin said the average 'cost for treatment will be half a million dollars.' 'When cancer patients face that, four out of 10 will not start treatment all together,' he said. 'Others will take on debt and feel trapped by medical debt. It has an impact on their health. They will skip or delay treatment. They might also change the foods they eat. It begins to impact their mental health as they begin to believe they will never be able to pay off this debt.' During Wednesday's press call, Carter said he dealt with the issue on a personal level 'after my wife passed away in a traumatic accident in 2017.' 'As you can imagine, time in the trauma center bills built up,' he said. 'In 2022, I needed to get a mortgage on my house. I got clear into escrow and all of a sudden a handful of bills from when she died popped up.' While knocking on doors during the last election cycle, Carter said he heard from constituents dealing with similar issues regarding the rising costs of healthcare and fears of medical debt. 'We want to ensure no one is forced into financial ruin simply because they got sick,' he said. Several people testifying in support Monday also recounted issues and fear around medical debt. Maria Navarrete, a health equity organizer with Make the Road Nevada who supports the bill, said people are already struggling with the high cost of living. Medical debt, she said, was a 'leading cause of financial hardship, often forcing families into poverty.' 'Reporting medical debt to credit agencies can ruin a person's credit score, making it difficult to rent a home, buy a car, or even get a job,' Navarrete said. Make the Road Nevada, the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada and Professional Fire Fighters of Nevada were among groups who supported the bill. The need for states to address the medical debt is more urgent given the Trump administration's effort to dismantle the CFPB and stymie the federal agency's effort to provide some protections to consumers, said Democratic Assemblymember Sandra Jauregui. 'One of the federal agencies that protects consumers for medical debt is no longer there to protect them,' she said. 'This couldn't be more timely.' Republican Assemblymember Lisa Cole said she was concerned about how the bill would impact the medical providers. 'My concern is going to be if they feel they can't collect on their debt and there is a real cost incurred to them that they won't practice here so we will have fewer doctors.' The bill also authorizes the state attorney general to take legal action against 'a person who has violated or is about to violate' the provisions of the bill. 'The attorney general has the ability to do thought-policing, basically,' Cole said. Groups including Nevada Hospital Association, the Nevada Rural Hospital Partners and the Nevada State Medical Association were among medical groups opposed to the bill. 'If health care providers can't pursue effective debt recovery efforts, why would anybody pay their medical bills,' said Patrick Kelly, a lobbyist with the Nevada Hospital Association. 'This bill applies to everyone. Millionaires can simply ignore their medical bills without any real consequences and shift their costs to honest people who pay their bills. How's that fair?' Kelly said hospitals already offer financial hardship programs and work on payment arrangements for low-income populations. Other groups opposed to the bill include Creditors Rights Attorneys of Nevada and Consumer Data Industry Association also opposed the bill. The committee took no action on the bill.
