COVID and Tenanf Hinting at “Tight Finances”

[Jon Mason]

We have good renters that we hope will renew in a few months when their lease is up. They’ve only been late once, so overall it’s a good situation.

He has been sick and apparently has been out of work while he was getting cleared of any COVID risk. He just texted me and said he’s been cleared to go back to work but that his wife has had to stay home with the kids (not sure why both of them had to be home, but trying not to be suspicious).

He mentioned in his text that “money is tight right now for sure”.

I suspect he is hinting at some kind of relief and I’m very torn about how to approach this. On the one hand I don’t want to set us up as being the LL that will bail them out whenever things get tight, but on the other hand these are certainly extraordinary circumstances.

Any thoughts on the right way to handle this?

I’m open to helping but I would almost rather him come out and say, “hey, i have $x for rent and I need help.”

My initial thought is to tell him that if he needs assistance then we need to know ASAP and we need to know what portion of the rent he can pay.

If we could cover our mortgage that would be ideal, but we could handle not getting any rent if it comes to that as we have some reserves. I just don’t want to set a bad precedent.