We rented our home when we moved into an RV. Now, eviction moratoriums have cost us our entire savings.

A California couple decided to rent their home instead of selling it when they moved into an RV.
The renters stopped paying. The landlords said amid eviction moratoriums, they've lost their savings.
This is their story, as told to freelance writer Jamie Killin.
Insider reviewed the lease agreement and court documents between the landlords and renters and has chosen to keep all names private.

This is the story of a couple who rented their home in California and stopped receiving payments during the pandemic, as told to freelance writer Jamie Killin. Insider reviewed the lease agreement and court documents between the landlords and renters. We've chosen to keep all names private.

When my husband, who's 74, and I, a disabled 65-year-old woman, decided to live out of an RV, we leased our house in California, with an option to buy to a young couple with a toddler. Shortly after they moved into the house in February 2020, the pandemic struck and they quit paying rent.

With eviction moratoriums in the US - which have been off and on since the beginning of the pandemic, and were most recently ended by the Supreme Court in August - they've now cost us our entire savings.

Our intent was to sell the house, never to be landlords. But at the time the market wasn't what it is right now, and we saw this young couple who had a baby and said all the right stuff. We thought this was a really good deal for everybody, and we thought it was the best option for us.

Now, we're just struggling along. Since we stopped receiving rent, we've used the majority of our savings to not lose our property.

Our tenants agreed to get out by July 31, when an eviction moratorium was still in effect. But then they kept asking for "one more week," and we felt like we didn't have any other choice but to move forward with the eviction.

They've moved out of the house but haven't returned the keys. There have been doors left open. The landscaping is gone, the house is very filthy with cobwebs and the carpet ruined, things like that. It's confusing because, in essence, they've abandoned the property and they tell us they're coming back, but then they don't. We unfortunately aren't able to enter until they're officially no longer tenants.

We're currently living in our RV in Utah, and our only income is social security since all of our retirement money is in the equity of our house. Because of this situation, my husband has gone to over-the-road truck driving to keep up the payments on the house.

House Financial Services Chair Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said landlords know how to get a loan. Well, you can't get a loan when you're not getting the income to support paying back the loan. That's not an option for the everyday mom-and-pop landlord.

Now my husband is gone all the time and I'm left at home to cope alone. We're supporting this young family and they're not even related to us. I'm scheduled for a major surgery soon and only can hope that my husband will be able to be home to help. We haven't figured out how that's going to happen, but we'll deal with it when we get there.

Our tenants did pay us for their first month in February, and we've received maybe one or two payments during that time. But for the rest of the time, they haven't made a payment.

They also didn't complied with any of the COVID-19 eviction-moratorium requirements put forward by the state of California. They didn't supply us with any of the required information nor paid the required 25% of the rent. They also weren't willing to apply - even with our help - for any of the aid that's available.

My husband was actually a real-estate mortgage broker, so we're aware of what we're doing, but both of us have always looked out for people and tried to give them opportunities. We've also tried to set up mediation with the family in order to solve this, but they've no-showed to both meetings.

Now, we are in the process of trying to evict them. We began prior to the eviction moratorium being ended by the Supreme Court, because the house was in poor condition and they weren't complying with the requirements.

But the person handling evictions locally is telling us now that they don't know what to expect from the judges, and we don't have high hopes. You just hope you can make it through and that it doesn't push you into a financial disaster.

When we heard the moratorium was initially going to be extended earlier this summer, it was just another: "Oh no." You try not to let anger eat you up. We didn't want to rent, and we still don't.

We plan to sell the house after the official eviction. Now that my husband's working full time and driving a truck, we'll have to figure out how we'll get up there and get things and straighten back out, but we intend to sell it and go forward with whatever it takes to get the house back in our possession.

My husband and I run into people with the same situation and know we're not the only ones. I can't tell you how many people share with us - they're just mom-and-pop setups with one or two rentals, and they could be your next-door neighbor - that they're struggling since the eviction moratorium.

We know it won't do us any good to let anger swallow us, so we just try to take it day by day. Evictions can be hard for everyone involved, including single-home landlords.

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