Tenants Not Paying Rent!

[Justine Phillipson]

Hello, I would like to get some advice or opinions on my situation.

I own a property in South Bend, Indiana. I live in California, and have a property manager run it.

Because of Covid, the husband lost his job. My tenants only paid half of the June rent. Today, they finally laid the other half of June rent, only after making a huge stink about waiting on unemployment and not being able to feed their kids.

They still haven’t paid anything for July. They said they will pay that on the 15th (I highly doubt they will though).

Indiana state laws have made evictions illegal until September.

What would you guys do? Their lease goes until 3/2021. I’m thinking about waiting until they give me the July rent, and then offering them to move out and break the lease and I’ll waive the penalty for them?

[Terrell Garren]

Certainly I only know the details you provided; however, some compassion may be in order.  I've worked with multiple tenants on deferred rent, no late fees, partial payments, etc.  All are doing their best given the situation and I've not considered having them move. Covid unemployment is a real thing and makes difficulties for tenants and landlords alike. A huge stink?  You think? What would your reaction be if you had kids, no employment, no place to go in the middle of a pandemic and a PM was pressing you for being a few weeks late on rent?  Exactly where do you expect them to go if you have them move? If your PM did their job in tenant selection, your risk of a bad outcome should be minimized.

I don't think it fair for you to lose several months of rent; however, it seems a little soon to be considering having them move on.  Best I can tell, they are only ten days late on rent in the middle of a pandemic.