Research by South Texas College of Law shows one in four evictions filed in Harris Co. are illegal

The CARES Act mandated by Congress was to prevent evictions from March 27 through July 25 of this year.

One big problem with it there was no penalty for those who ignored it and there was a lot of ignoring it in Harris County.

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Properties with federally based mortgages or taking part in housing programs were covered by the CARES Act.

"But some either don't know they are covered or aren't going to admit they're covered or are for whatever reason are evicting people even though they are covered by the law," said Eric Kwartler, the attorney with the South Texas College of Law who conducted the research.

"It was shocking to me that almost one in four evictions filed in Harris County shouldn't be filed, that's objectively shocking," he said. "I knew it was happening on a large scale, but that essentially renders the CARES Act meaningless."

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Even the filed evictions that don't happen leave a bad mark on your credit report.

South Texas College of Law says that if you are being evicted to contact an attorney. You can visit http://www.stcl.edu/.