When a judge struck down D.C.’s ban on eviction filings last week, attorneys were quick to point out that the order wouldn’t immediately affect at-risk renters in the city. But at-risk businesses are a different story.

While actual evictions are still on hold, the ruling from D.C. Superior Court Judge Anthony Epstein “opens the door” for property owners to begin eviction proceedings against businesses that can’t pay the rent, says D.C. attorney Richard Bianco. The sooner the eviction process begins in court, the earlier business owners can be removed after the public health emergency ends, setting up a potential deluge of commercial evictions soon after the pandemic.

The situation is different for residential landlords, whose ability to begin the eviction process is hampered by the city’s temporary ban on eviction notices. (Residential landlords must give notice of an eviction before they can file a case.) Because commercial tenants often waive their right to an eviction notice in their lease, the ban on notices doesn’t help them.

It’s not clear how many D.C. businesses are currently at risk of eviction; that information isn’t public, and commercial eviction cases weren’t being filed while the filing ban was in place, so court records don’t offer many clues. But it’s clear that many business owners are struggling. Dozens of D.C. businesses — especially independently owned restaurants — have shuttered during the crisis, and many more may be contemplating the same move.

Now, there remains only one legal barrier protecting businesses from facing swift eviction post-pandemic: a temporary law that requires landlords to offer alternative payment plans to commercial tenants before they can file an eviction suit.

“If the landlord offered [a payment plan] to you and you responded and said you were interested, [the landlord] shouldn’t be able to move forward with an eviction at all,” says Dan Koffman, a business attorney with the Veritas law firm.

There’s also hope that landlords won’t seek to evict in the first place. John Falcicchio, D.C.’s deputy mayor of planning and economic development, says some property owners may think twice before filing a case against a business that was in good standing until the pandemic hit.

“Folks have a notion that if the tenant isn’t paying rent, that they should move them out and try to find the next tenant,” Falcicchio says. “My concern with that approach would be, I don’t know that there are a ton of new tenants lined up and waiting for that space.”

Taalib-Din Uqdah, founder of the 14th Street Uptown Business Association, agrees that some property owners would be better off giving their tenants a break. Threatening eviction, he says, may not yield the results they want.

“Landlords would be going after somebody that essentially doesn’t have anything. How is that going to work for you?” Uqdah says. “Now your tenant is gone. You’ve threatened him, you’ve cut off that relationship. You go and put a ‘For Rent’ sign in your window, and now the sign is starting to fade because you’re not getting any calls.”

Uqdah says he’s not aware of any businesses in his part of Ward 4 that are facing eviction. But he says those that are may close their doors to avoid losing more money.

The city recently put up $100 million in grants to hospitality, retail and entertainment businesses hit hard by the pandemic. Previously, the District allocated more than $45 million in microgrants and other assistance for local and small businesses.

But that money may not reach every business owner who needs it, or it may arrive too late. Koffman says he remains worried about businesses that could face enormous rent debt after the crisis subsides.

“The hospitality industry has been devastated,” Koffman says. “There’s still going to be a long period of distress for a lot of commercial tenants that haven’t been able to come to reasonable arrangements with their landlords.”