Free Tool Helps Renters Avoid Eviction by Generating Necessary Declaration To Invoke Trump Administration's New Order

Tool is available in English and Spanish and generates a letter and declaration that renters can send to their landlord to exercise their right to avoid eviction under the Trump Administration's new order

News provided by

SixFifty Technologies

Sep 10, 2020, 07:00 ET

SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- SixFifty, the technology subsidiary of the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, today announced that its free Hello Landlord tool (www.hellolandlord.org) can help renters generate the necessary paperwork to take advantage of the Trump Administration's new order restricting evictions. To invoke the new order and avoid being evicted, renters must sign a declaration that certifies their inability to pay rent, despite their best efforts. Hello Landlord helps renters generate that declaration, along with an accompanying letter that renters can send to their landlord that outlines their rights under the new law.

"The Trump Administration's new order has the potential to help millions of renters to stay in their homes during the pandemic," said Kimball Dean Parker, CEO of SixFifty. "But if renters can't create the necessary declaration, the order won't help them. We want help as many renters as possible to take advantage of this lifeline and stay in their homes."

Hello Landlord asks renters a series of questions about their financial situation and the steps they've taken to pay rent. The questions appear in either English or Spanish, depending on the renter's preference. SixFifty's automation software takes the renter's answers and uses them to generate a customized declaration that the renter can give to his or her landlord to stop an eviction. If renters don't qualify for protection under the new order, Hello Landlord will generate a letter that renters can use to ask their landlord for flexibility with making rent payments.

In March 2020, Congress passed the CARES Act, which included a moratorium on eviction for rental properties with federally-backed mortgages. That moratorium, however, recently ended, putting millions of renters at risk of being evicted. During the moratorium under the CARES Act, Hello Landlord helped over 3,000 renters to invoke their right to avoid being evicted. The Trump Administration's new order takes the place of the expired protections under the CARES Act and protects renters at-risk of becoming homeless. Unlike the federal stimulus, however, the new order requires that renters sign a declaration that outlines their financial situation and their efforts to obtain help. SixFifty adjusted Hello Landlord to take into account this new requirement.

Hello Landlord is the second tool that SixFifty has built to help people stay in their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. On April 2, SixFifty launched Hello Lender (www.hellolender.org), a free tool that helps homeowners who are struggling financially due to the COVID-19 Emergency to avoid foreclosure by requesting to delay their mortgage payments for up to six months, without penalties or fees, under the CARES Act. Thousands of homeowners have used Hello Lender since launch.

Hello Landlord was originally created by SixFifty in collaboration with LawX, the legal design lab at BYU Law School, and the Innovation for Justice (i4J) Program at University of Arizona College of Law.

About SixFifty
SixFifty is the technology subsidiary of the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. SixFifty leverages the firm's legal expertise to develop automated tools designed to make the law affordable and easier to navigate. SixFifty offers products that help companies with privacy compliance (GDPR and CCPA) and employment issues related to COVID-19 (telecommuting and return to work), with many more areas to come. For more information, please visit www.sixfifty.com.

About Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
For more than 50 years, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has offered a broad range of services and legal disciplines focused on serving the principal challenges faced by the management and boards of directors of business enterprises. The firm is nationally recognized as a leader in the fields of corporate governance and finance, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, securities litigation, employment law, intellectual property, and antitrust, among many other areas of law. With deep roots in Silicon Valley, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has offices in Austin; Beijing; Boston; Brussels; Hong Kong; London; Los Angeles; New York; Palo Alto; San Diego; San Francisco; Seattle; Shanghai; Washington, D.C.; and Wilmington, DE. For more information, please visit www.wsgr.com.