Miami-Dade County renters received another layer of protection from eviction during the coronavirus pandemic, but how effective it's been is up for debate.

In response to an inquiry May 16 from Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts Harvey Ruvin, Chief Circuit Judge Bertila Soto directed his office to stop issuing summonses for evictions and foreclosures due to nonpayment until a state moratorium expires.

Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended foreclosures and evictions April 2 for 45 days and extended his order twice, most recently until July 1.

Ruvin's letter noted his office and position are neutral and the action merely ministerial in nature, so he would follow Soto's direction on issues like summonses.

He included two letters from the Florida Court Clerks & Comptrollers, a support group for the state's elected clerks and comptrollers, instructing clerks to keep accepting eviction filings and collect fees but take no other action without direction from the court, including issuing summonses.

Ruvin said his office has issued no writs of possession — the final legal step to push a tenant out of an apartment — since before DeSantis' original suspension.

The Florida Supreme Court on March 24 issued an administrative order telling court clerks to suspend writs of possessions.

But whether summonses have halted under Soto's May 18 directive isn't entirely clear.

The Miami-Dade clerk's office issued a summons May 29 against Hector Alvarez and his father, Hector Alvarez Sr., who were sued May 26 by the landlord of a Miami Beach condominium unit where Alvarez Sr. lives for failure to pay March and April rent.

The younger Alvarez rents units for himself and his 91-year-old father in the same four-story South Beach building at 158 Ocean Drive.

Landlord Joshua Goldberg and his attorney Michael Perse, shareholder at Kluger, Kaplan, Silverman, Katzen & Levine in Miami, maintain the Alvarezes have declined to pay rent and vacate the unit without a legal basis.

The suit lists unlawful detainer, breach of contract, unpaid rent and ejectment counts.

Perse maintains he didn't file an eviction case during the moratorium but filed a damages claim. The Alvarezes stopped paying rent March 1, which was before  COVID-19 emergency orders were issued.

The father-son defendants are blocking Goldberg's plan to sell the unit, Perse said.

"We do not want to sue for eviction. We want to sue for damages and to eject them, and it will happen within the eviction deadline after the emergency order expires in any event," Perse said. "The governor's order was meant to protect tenants from immediate eviction in like a three-day notice. They are just people who don't want to pay their rent. They are not people without means. They are using this as a way to gain a favorable advantage for themselves."

Miami attorney and civic activist David Winker, who represents the Alvarezes, has a different take, saying the landlord filed an eviction case during the moratorium and the complaint has been mischaracterized as a breach of contract case.

Perse and Goldberg checked the 'contract & indebtedness" box when filing the case rather than "properly and truthfully signifying that this is, in fact, a residential eviction due to unpaid rent," Winker argued in an emergency motion to dismiss filed Saturday.

The younger Alvarez is a landlord with 15 rental units.

"He was reflecting how ironic it is that he is being sued for eviction during a moratorium on eviction when he has five tenants that he could be evicting but is not because he is abiding by the moratorium," Winker said.

Beyond the issue of summonses, eviction filings haven't stopped. there is the fact that landlords still can file for evictions. As estimated 700 Miami-Dade eviction cases have been filed despite the suspension.

"These evictions are prohibited by the governor's moratorium and shouldn't be filed in the first place," Winker said. "I'm glad the courts are going to stop them from moving forward by not issuing summonses."