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from the this-is-the-most-2020-thing-of-2020-yet dept.
Gig Economy Company Launches Uber, But for Evicting People:
"SINCE COVID-19 MANY AMERICANS FELL BEHIND IN ALL ASPECTS," reads the website copy. The button below this statement is not for a GoFundMe, or a petition for calling for rent relief. Instead, it is the following call to action, from a company called Civvl: "Be hired as eviction crew."
During a time of great economic and general hardship, Civvl aims to be, essentially, Uber, but for evicting people. Seizing on a pandemic-driven nosedive in employment and huge uptick in number-of-people-who-can't-pay-their-rent, Civvl aims to make it easy for landlords to hire process servers and eviction agents as gig workers.
Helena Duncan, a Chicago-based paralegal who also participates in housing activism, saw a Craigslist post from Civvl while searching for jobs. The ad alarmed her.
"It's fucked up that there will be struggling working-class people who will be drawn to gigs like furniture-hauling or process-serving for a company like Civvl, evicting fellow working-class people from their homes so they themselves can make rent," she told Motherboard.
[...] At the time of writing, Civvl and OnQall did not return requests for comment, but did appear to block the author's IP address from visiting OnQall.com.
There is a federal ban on evictions, declared by the CDC, but landlords are still attempting to press on. There is a penalty for violating the ban, which can include a combination of fines and jail time. Civvl did not respond to a question about how the company ensures evictions are legal, though based on the Terms of Service, it appears to pass all risk onto the companies using its platform, stating that it simply "provides lead generation to independent contractors," and does not actually carry out the work itself.
(Score: 2, Informative) by fakefuck39 on Tuesday September 29 2020, @08:18PM (5 children)
Oh, it's worse. People are renting, refusing to pay rent, and then renting that "free" property on airbnb. And nothing can be done about it.
Now, I thankfully sold my 3-unit house a year before this shit started and dumped it all into mutual funds, which have earned me 35% this year. But if this happened to me, I would evict them by turning off the water and electrical, or just changing the locks. They can then go to court or the cops to try and get back in. Yes, it's against the no evictions law, but by the time this goes through the courts, they've been out on the street for a month. And if it actually gets to court, the judge hopefully would ask things like "did you stop paying rent because you lost your job, and have no unemployment, and didn't apply for the 5000 in free state rent assistance?" and the answer in most of these asshole cases would be "I have my job and not only am I using the pandemic to save extra cash, but I'm renting it out on airbnb, breaking the terms of my lease."
It's like the 1st amendment. No evictions doesn't mean you're free to break other laws.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 30 2020, @12:16AM (1 child)
Are you in the US? How would you turn off the water and electical? Would the utilities allow you to have them turned off? What if the "renter" gets an injunction against you? Or gets you fined by the health department for having uninhabitable rental property? In current times, I wouldn't expect a fast, fair hearing for rental disputes in an agglomeration of more than 10 000 people this year.
(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Wednesday September 30 2020, @08:23PM
I would turn off the water by walking up to the main with a big wrench and turning it. The same thing I do if a pipe bursts and starts flooding my house. I would turn the electric off by walking up to the fuse box and flipping the 2 50 amp line fuses, then locking the fuse box. I would change the locks by pulling out the lock cylinder and putting in a new one, when the renters aren't home.
If someone does things that break the lease, they are not protected by the no eviction order. The eviction order protects people not paying - renters. Once the lease is broken by the resident, they are no longer a renter, and not under the lease. Now, they are free to take it to court or another city department and argue their case, while looking for a new apartment and moving their shit off the lawn in the rain to self-storage.
No eviction doesn't mean you can do anything you want. I may indeed lose in court - months later. After they spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours defending their scam and their breaking of the lease. Let me put it into perspective for you: does no evictions mean they're free to cook meth and start bonfires in the living room of their rental property?
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday September 30 2020, @02:40AM (2 children)
The Invisible Hand of the Free Market (TM) is flipping you the digitus impudicus. You chose to try and make money on rent instead of productive work, now take your lumps like a man. How dare you blaspheme against your God, the Free Market! Sad! Loser! Low-energy! =P
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 30 2020, @03:44AM
The invisible hand of the free market™ is making me postpone my plans to expand the available housing market for renters by competing with others. Increased supply would have been good for renters. Instead, I'll allocate my investment assets to those the government is currently smiling upon. Likely, those don't benefit people looking for affordable housing.
(Score: 2) by fakefuck39 on Thursday October 01 2020, @05:16AM
umm, how about no. i'll take my lumps like a man, but i certainly won't take your lumps just because you aren't a man. i got no issue of not having a rented out property. i'm in no way obligated to house you when you have issues. you're free to die on the street for all I care -not my problem.
now, that doesn't mean you should be left to die on the street via gov programs funded by our taxes. it just means I, personally, am not here to support you, personally. if my car breaks down and i need to getnto work, i don't have the right to steal your car that you're not using that day.it's up to society as a whole to help. and it does. if you can't pay rent because you got fired, unemployment was $5k/month, then 4k/month, and now will start at 2.5k/month. that is plenty for food and a cheap place to live. and no, when you're unemployed, you're not entitled to live in an expensive city area or a nice place. fucking move. da fuck out of my house. bitch.