Landlords... Stop being so hard on your tenants

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I've been reading through the forums here and I've read a lot of posts about how the tenants should have the money saved up to pay rent in an emergency, and if not they should use a credit card or the money in their retirement account to pay rent.

Yes, they signed a contract to pay a certain dollar amount for a certain period of time but no one saw this disaster coming.

Instead of forcing them into debt or draining their retirement accounts why don't you just let them leave. Let them break the lease and go live with family or friends. Or you can give them a lower dollar amount to pay for the next 90 days.

The truth is that you should have adequate reserves for situations like this as a "professional investor". Try to have some compassion for the average person who makes very little money compared to you and probably lives paycheck to paycheck.

[Theresa Harris]

Landlords also have bills and some of them may have lost their jobs.  Just because they own a home (many have mortgages) doesn't mean they are rolling in money.  Tenants need to pay what they can (ie they can't pay nothing) and work out a payment plan for any shortages with the landlord.