A retired attorney is donating her time to the center to help with the dozens of questions they receive every month from both landlords and tenants.
Mountain Mediation Center Programs Director Kris Campbell said the problem surfaced during the pandemic when the number of evictions jumped. Today, along the Wasatch Back, there are as many as five eviction filings a month.
“And what we found is that if we can give some information to people early, we can help prevent problems from getting to the place of needing an eviction in the first place,” Campbell said. “There are questions around security deposits, questions around lease terms, things like that. Those kinds of questions come up all of the time.”
Center Director Gretchen Lee said they don’t provide legal services, only legal information about state laws that apply to tenant and landlord conflicts.
Lee notes that Utah is the only state in the country that has a three-day pay or vacate and treble damages law on the books. If someone were to be evicted for non-payment, she said a three-day eviction notice would jump start the eviction process. The tenant then has three days to fix the problem, or face damages that can be three times the amount that they might otherwise owe.
“You can see the importance of preventing the eviction from occurring to begin with, because once they're saddled with this eviction filing, not only is that on their record in terms of future rental possibilities, also this incredible debt," Lee said. "If they couldn't pay the original amount, they're really going to struggle to pay that three times the amount.”
Those needing help can sign up for a 15-minute consultation online for the second and fourth Thursday of the month between 4 and 5 p.m.
