Landlord of eight Florida apartment buildings plans to EVICT people who refuse to get COVID vaccine, after 15 of his tenants died in the pandemic

 A landlord of eight Florida apartment blocks plans to evict people who refuse to get the Covid vaccine, after 15 of his tenants died in the pandemic.

Santiago A. Alvarez owns eight apartment complexes, with 1,200 units, in Broward and Miami-Dade counties and is the first known large-scale landlord in the US to impose a vaccine requirement for tenants.

However, doubt remains over whether it will be legal as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued an executive order banning vaccine passports which will be enforced from September 16.

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A Florida landlord, Santiago Alvarez, has imposed a Covid vaccine requirement for tenants, after 15 of his tenants died in the pandemic. Pictured: Royal Palms at Lauderhill apartment block

It prohibits businesses from requiring that customers be vaccinated and could be subject to a $5,000 fine every time they ask for documentation as it violates citizens' civil liberties and rights to keep their medical information private.  

In an interview, with  the Sun Sentinal, Alvarez said: 'We have to be concerned about our tenants and our employees. All of these are private properties. We're just trying to keep people safe and healthy. It's going to cost us money, but we're very firm on that.'

Alvarez said up to 15 of his tenants had died of Covid-19 over the course of the pandemic and a larger number had gotten sick with the virus. 

'We don't want that happening to [any more of] our tenants,' he said.

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However, doubt remains over whether it will be legal as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (pictured) issued an executive order banning vaccine passports which will be enforced from September 16

Under the landlord's zero tolorence policy, which took effect on August 15, tenents who are still unvaccinated when it comes time to renew the lease on their apartment, will be evicted.

However, Alvarez may have exposed a loophole in the governor's ban, forcing the courts to decide whether a 'tenant' is equivalent to a 'customer'. 

In an email, Governor DeSantis' press secretary, Christina Pushaw, after referring to her lawyers, wrote: 'Our counsel thinks that would be a violation of the vaccine passport ban.'

But Alvarez's attorney, Juan C. Zorrilla insisted that Alvarez's mandatory vaccine policy does not violate DeSantis' ban because a tenant is not a 'patron' or 'customer.' 

He wrote: 'We believe that there is a clear distinction between someone who is an occupant of a dwelling and physically on the premises for an extended duration of time versus someone who is a patron or customer and simply visiting for a short duration.' 

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Under the landlord's zero tolorence policy, which took effect on August 15, tenents who are still unvaccinated when it comes time to renew the lease on their apartment, will be evicted (file image of a woman receiving the Covid-19)

Tenants in the eight apartment blocks owned by Alvarez have mixed views, with one woman who lives in the apartment complex Royal Palms at Lauderhill, agreed with her landlord, while another tenent, who claimed to already be vaccinated, said it should be 'illegal' and 'you can't force people'. 

In other parts of the US, some schools, businesses and City Councils are requiring customers, students and police officers for proof of vaccination against Covid-19.

Colleges and universities including Virginia Tech and University of Virginia are some of those schools who have mandated that students must be vaccinated or face fines or be unenrolled.

Officials at Virginia Tech have disenrolled more than 130 students who either did not submit their vaccination documentation or did not receive an exemption, the school said on its website.

Meanwhile, the University of Virginia disenrolled at least 238 students, for violating its vaccine mandate. 

In Seattle, over 200 police officers risk losing their jobs over the city’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate as they have either not received the jab or refuse to hand over their private medical data.