The D.C. Council has approved legislation that would further protect renters from eviction during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to allow Mayor Muriel Bowser to prolong the city’s state of emergency. The District’s prohibition on evictions is tied to the health emergency, and would be prolonged if the mayor opts for the extension. There’s also a ban on new eviction filings that lasts for an additional 60 days after the emergency ends.

The District’s evictions stay is among the strongest in the country, prohibiting eviction proceedings for any reason, including lease violations. It’s more comprehensive than a recent order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that bars landlords from evicting people who show they’ve lost income due to the pandemic.

The Council also approved temporary legislation supported by tenant advocates: A bill from Council member Anita Bonds (D-At Large) places a one-year moratorium on a little-known provision in D.C. law that grants tax credits to landlords if the Council expands the city’s existing rent control law to more properties. That potential expansion is a top priority for tenant organizers and advocates for low-income renters, who have been pushing to broaden rent control since last year.

Another bill, co-introduced by Bonds and Council member Elissa Silverman (I-At Large), makes it illegal for property owners to serve tenants with notices to vacate for 60 days after the health emergency expires. Notices to vacate are legally unenforceable during the eviction ban, but Silverman said Tuesday that some landlords continue to use them to intimidate out-of-work tenants who are behind on rent payments. Some renters who have received the notices think they’re being evicted, and they’ve permanently left their homes out of fear or misunderstanding.

“When they receive [the notices],” Silverman said, “tenants, I’ll just say, freak out.”

An approved amendment from Council member Trayon White (D-Ward 8) also clarifies that landlords aren’t allowed to coerce renters to move out by “decreasing services, harassment, and refusing to renew a lease or rental agreement,” though much of this behavior — called “self-help eviction” — is already illegal in the District.

Representatives for property owners and managers generally oppose the broad stay on evictions and notices to vacate. Some landlords say they’re being forced to absorb hits to their income during the health crisis, with little financial relief from the city or the federal government. Landlord attorneys recently argued before D.C. Superior Court Judge Anthony Epstein that the District’s eviction ban should be narrowed to include only nonpayment cases so landlords can evict people who pose a danger to their neighbors or property.

Landlord surrogates have raised similar qualms about the temporary ban on eviction notices. The bill prohibits landlords from sending notices to tenants who are violating their leases in other ways beyond nonpayment, such as by keeping pets, disturbing other tenants or causing damage to the residence. Those tenants aren’t able to be evicted now, either, but landlords sometimes use the notices to pressure tenants to stop violating their leases.

“What little landlords were able to do, now they can’t even do that,” says attorney Richard Bianco, who represents landlords in the District. “[This bill] takes away another tool that landlords have to try and protect people who are living in their property as well as the property itself.”

Bianco says a better solution would be to change the language on the notices to prevent confusion. But tenant advocates say a blanket ban on eviction notices of all kinds would prevent landlords from finding other legal avenues to intimidate renters behind on their rent.

Six months into the pandemic, renters across the D.C. region have reported being bullied and threatened with eviction by landlords who are increasingly desperate to collect rent payments from tenants who have lost their income. Without financial help from Congress, some landlords fear they will lose their properties through foreclosure.

The ban on eviction notices goes into effect for 90 days after it’s signed by Mayor Muriel Bowser, and it will be extended through the health emergency plus two months if it clears both the mayor’s office and a standard 30-day congressional review.

The D.C. Council’s housing committee is scheduled to take up several housing-related bills in a hearing on Thursday. Council members Trayon White and Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1) have also introduced a comprehensive rent control bill that has broad support from tenant advocates, but Bonds — who chairs the housing committee — has not yet scheduled a hearing for that bill.