In response to COVID-19, Nevada’s Governor Steve Sisolak issued a Declaration of Emergency in March to temporarily halt residential evictions and foreclosures across the state. This initial moratorium was set to expire on June 30, 2020. Before the end of June, Governor Sisolak issued a follow-up Declaration of Emergency to extend the moratorium on evictions through the end of August. This month, the Nevada Legislature passed a bill to provide landlords and tenants facing eviction with options once the state’s eviction moratorium is lifted on September 1, 2020.
It’s reported that in 2019, Nevada courts processed more than 45,000 eviction cases. Recently, news outlets are reporting that after September 1st the number of households facing eviction could vary between 135,000-270,000. Under the recently passed bill, if a court establishes a rule to utilize alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) to address evictions, then the eviction proceedings may be stayed for 30 days to allow parties the opportunity to participate in ADR. Although the bill doesn’t specify the type of ADR to be used, when presenting the proposed legislation to lawmakers, Nevada Supreme Court Justice James W. Hardesty noted that the program would be modeled after the state’s foreclosure mediation program. Moreover, during his presentation Judge Hardesty also told legislatures that, “this is a short bill for a big problem.” Governor Sisolak signed the bill into law on August 7, 2020.
Tags: Eviction Mediation
