Feds target evictions by some of America's biggest landlords

Despite a federal order that protects tenants from being evicted until the end of June, corporate landlords around the U.S. have gone to court to eject thousands of people from their homes. Now government regulators are scrutinizing these property owners' eviction practices, putting many of the nation's largest landlords on notice.

The Federal Trade Commission and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau earlier this month sent letters reminding major landlords, which together manage more than 2 million rental units, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's limits on evictions. More specifically, the FTC said in March that it is monitoring "major multistate landlords, eviction management services and private equity firms." The CFPB, which protects consumers from financial abuse, has also tightened a rule to bolster the federal eviction ban. The rule, which took effect May 3, requires third-party debt collectors — a category that includes lawyers acting on behalf of property owners — to inform tenants of the CDC's restrictions on evictions. The CFPB took that step after determining that third-party debt collectors were responsible for "almost all" the eviction filings in some parts of the U.S., officials said.