Moratorium extension in Wa and tenant says has no money or plan

[Patricia Vildozo]

Hello community,

A while ago I decided to rent my primary home located in Wa, and rent another house in a better school district. I divided that house into two units; the main house ( unit 1) and a separate entry bedroom w/ bath ( unit 2) and since then I had great tenants. Everything was fine until the Corona Virus crisis hit us all , the tenants from the bigger unit payed April’s rent on time and said that they are economically stable . However, the tenant from the second unit who moved on November of last year told us that he can’t pay. We understand that many people is going through really hard times , including us since I’m afraid my husband job is also on jeopardy, thus we offered different options to pay this month.

First, we gave him a discount of 20 % if he payed on time.

Second, a payment plan so he pays 20% on time , and the rest over two months .

And third, we offered to break the lease without penalty and apply the last months rent for the month of April and just let him go without any penalty.

Since then he has ghosted us until two days ago letting us know that he still doesn’t have money. Also, he hasn’t chose any of the options offered.

Our next step was to send him a 30 day notice to vacate this 18 of April which was when the moratorium was going to end. However, now the governor extended the moratorium until early June.

We feel that we gave him options, and we are afraid that he won’t be able to pay the money owed at the end of the moratorium either since all the balance is going to accrue and we might end up going to court or collections which we don’t want to do.

I would really appreciate some advice...