Pandemic, Landlord Rights, Union, & Political Representation

[Umer M. Chaudhry]

Hello Everyone,

I don’t know if it’s only me, or rest of you feel the same way during this pandemic. Seems like government’s main concerns are related to tenants and businesses that have employees, whereas; landlords are getting short end of the stick. Major steps are being taken to control the economy and money is being thrown on individuals, businesses, markets, however; not much supporting the landlords directly. Mortgage forbearance is not being mandated by the govt, it’s by the banks and is a temporary relief. You have to pay this money back, however; it’s going to be really hard to get money out of tenants once they are few months behind, leave the house, and/ or face financial hardship.

Looking from another angle, seems really unfair when you see politicians putting together all these programs to directly support tenants and depriving the landlords of their legal rights to evict if not paid. I think it’s unfair that the tenants are being showered with money via stimulus checks, unemployment, SBA, and PPP etc. to pay their bills and not being told that paying rent is one of their top priorities (at least if they get govt support). Don’t get me wrong, I know everyone is taking the hit, and we have to accommodate people that are really suffering, however; my concerns are related to tenants that have money, got money from govt, or in some cases are getting more money now than before, and choose not to pay rent. The purpose of all this stimulus money is to pay the bills and keep the economy going, and rent is the most significant bill most tenants have to pay.

Due to coronavirus situation, if someone chooses to not pay rent, you can kiss your rent goodbye for at least 5-6 months or more…. NJ is not the best/ landlord friendly state to seek evictions as landlord to begin with. Now, after courts being closed for so long, and perhaps considering social distancing guidelines after they open, it might go for months more. If no pressure, I wont be surprised if it prolongs to year or more. Courts should start working online…. Its ancient anyway that we have to go to court to drop simple eviction application. If needed, courts should set up hearing via video conferencing. However, if we don’t push now, it may still take years…

I don’t think landlords fall in category that politicians want to please. Politicians are looking for votes/ donations, and small landlords like us don’t offer either one much.

Purpose of this post is to problem solve on how to get heard, rather than sitting and feeling helpless. To make sure politicians get to hear our concerns when they are taking decisions. If not now, at least in future. Or, to explore if we have an existing channel, that most landlords like myself don’t know about.

Until we problem solve something better, I think that we need to unit… if not at national level, at least at state/ county level. If not to push our demands, at least to make sure that politicians keep this important segment of community/ economy in mind during situations like these. Once we are gathered, we would know how much we can matter. At the very least, we can start/ sign online petitions, we can talk to elected officials, get media attention, or perhaps form a landlord union….… I know one thing, unity/ number of our landlord community members would matter…

Unless some platform like this already exists, I can start consolidating landlord database for NJ. I will recommend we do it via each state, get our roots stronger, and start reaching out to public officials. 

If you went through the whole post, appreciate your patience ;). Please don’t forget to share your thoughts/ comments.

Thanks.