Being evicted for no reason makes it harder to find your next home

Connecticut renters share how no cause evictions have hurt their lives

After spending a decade living in the same building, a New Haven renter received an eviction notice from a landlord they’d never met. They weren’t being forced out because they didn’t pay rent or broke the rules of their lease. The notice just gave “lapse of time” as the reason.

“I am very stressed out by this, I now have custody of my two great-grandchildren, and the thought of having to rush and find other housing, and even have an eviction case on my record, is causing me a lot of stress and anxiety,” the renter wrote in anonymous testimony to the state’s Housing Committee. “I don’t want my credit messed up, my credit is very good, and even though the eviction is not for non-payment of rent, I am worried about how the eviction will [affect] me going forward. I know a lot of landlords don’t even want to talk to you when they see an eviction case, no matter what the reason is for the eviction case.”

The new landlord – a company, not a person – owns dozens of buildings in the area. Its only communication with the tenants before the evictions was a letter taped to doors about where to send rent.

It’s a story that’s being played out across Connecticut. Right now, landlords are able to evict tenants who pay their rent on time and follow their lease. Our lawmakers can stand up for renters’ rights by passing bills that require landlords to have a just cause – a good reason – to evict tenants.

About 9% of evictions landlords filed from August 2019 to February 2020 in Connecticut were without just cause. By February 2022, that jumped to 35%. We don’t know how many total people are being evicted without a reason, however, because landlords can force someone out by threatening to evict them. An eviction on a record makes it harder to find another place to live, even if the renter didn’t do anything wrong.

The eviction process is multiple steps. A landlord will file a “notice to quit” to try to get a renter to leave. If they don’t, then the landlord can have them served with a court summons and a complaint. This is when an eviction becomes public information in the court system. The eviction court record stays on the renter’s record, even if they win the case. Many landlords look at court records before renting to someone. If another landlord filed an eviction against them, then the next landlord may think that renting to them is risky.

A Hamden mother wrote the Housing Committee to share her story about being in temporary housing because of a no cause eviction. Her landlord was illegally keeping her security deposit, and she couldn’t find another place to live within her child’s school district because of how much rent went up in the area.

“This housing insecurity has been torture to my child and I,” she wrote. “We were good tenants, but when my politically conservative landlord realized I was a lesbian, he found the first opportunity he had to remove me.”

Being evicted without reason is expensive. Renters have to hand over thousands of dollars for the first month of rent, plus up to two months’ rent for a deposit. That’s on top of paying moving costs and finding an affordable place to live – something that’s becoming harder and harder to do in Connecticut.

Eviction is traumatizing. It rips people from their communities, schools, and support systems. The cost of living is going up. Rent, groceries, healthcare, and utilities are getting more expensive. Many people cannot afford to move, especially without much notice.

Landlords can use no cause evictions to kick out renters who exercise their rights to join a tenant union or complain about unsafe living conditions. Landlords can also use no cause evictions to hide discrimination.

“The fact that landlords could choose to retaliate in this way is terrifying, and it presents a huge power imbalance between tenants and landlords, where one party can actively censor the other’s political speech at will and suppress tenant organizations,” said Lucy, who only used her first name when writing to the Housing Committee because she was afraid her landlord would retaliate against her. “I am also a trans woman, and in Connecticut it is illegal for landlords to discriminate against us or other marginalized groups in housing, but no-cause evictions make it very difficult to prove an eviction was discriminatory.”

Dozens of people shared their stories of how they, or a friend or family member, were hurt by a no cause eviction. Most submitted anonymous testimony because they were afraid their landlord would punish them.

Robin, a New Haven renter, was evicted by the company that bought their building and never bothered to meet anyone who lived there.

“And then, with no discussion or anything, next thing we know is there’s a note on the door telling us that we had to move out by December 31st and we were being evicted,” they wrote. “None of us ever did anything wrong. We are all good tenants, we keep the place clean, we mind our own business, keep to ourselves, and we pay our rent on time.”

Connecticut renters who are over the age of 62 or have a disability have some protections against no cause evictions. House Bill 6889 would expand rights to more renters from being forced out of their homes for no reason.

Evictions are hurting renters now and making it harder for them to find another place to live. A landlord can decide not to rent to someone if there is an eviction filing on their record, even if they were evicted without cause or won their case. That’s not fair to hardworking families who pay their rent and don’t break their lease.

Greedy landlords can use no cause evictions to get people out and then hike the rent. The cost of housing keeps going up. Letting predatory landlords inflate the price of rent will only make it harder to pay for essentials. Connecticut needs an additional 90,000 affordable apartments in order to match the need, and rent is becoming less affordable each year.

No one should be evicted when they haven’t done anything wrong. Take action now to tell your lawmakers to expand renters’ rights to keep communities together.