Bible guidance on Coronavirus late rent payments

[Doug Heim]

I'd be interested if anyone else has any Bible wisdom that relates to being a landlord.

I've fixed up and rented three properties in the last three years and so far things have gone smoothly.  I recently starting thinking about what to do if one of my tenants has problems paying the rent due to the Coronavirus and job layoffs.  When I woke up this morning the answer came to me.  If a tenant loses his (or her) job and can't pay the rent, I will tell him to pay me what he can afford, and the remainder for that month will be forgiven.  I will also tell him in these times of need to do a good deed for his neighbor so that my generosity continues.  A month later, if he should come back and say he still doesn't have a job and can't pay the rent, I will ask him what good deed he did for his neighbor the past month.  If he can recount a good deed, I will tell him to pay me what he can afford, and the remainder for that month will be forgiven.  If he cannot recount a good deed, I will evict him as soon as is legally possible and re-rent my property to a more deserving tenant.

I based this guidance on a parable from Matthew 18:23-34:

because the Kingdom of heaven is like this.  Once there was a king who decided to check on his servants' accounts.  He had just begun to do so when one of them was brought in who owed him millions of dollars.  The servant did not have enough to pay his debt, so the king ordered him to be sold as a slave, with his wife and his children and all that he had, in order to pay the debt.  The servant fell on his knees before the king.  'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay you everything!'  The king felt sorry for him, so he forgave him the debt and let him go.  Then the man went out and met one of his fellow servants who owed him a few dollars.  He grabbed him and started choking him.  'Pay back what you owe me!' he said.  His fellow servant fell down and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back!'  But he refused; instead, he had him thrown into jail until he should pay the debt.  When the other servants saw what had happened, they were very upset and went to the king and told him everything.  So he called the servant in.  'You worthless slave!' he said.  'I forgave you the whole amount you owed me, just because you asked me to.  You should have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you.'  The king was very angry, and he sent the servant to jail to be punished until he should pay back the whole amount.