Tenant playing the COVID card.

[Jacob Beg]

Hi All:

I have a tenant in  MD who claims to have COVID and is irresponsive to my emails/call, etc. This tenant has a history of paying late, but in fairness she always pays. Rightly or wrongly, I fell in this pattern of not insisting on charging late penalty due to COVID and that I am an out of state landlord. 

I have to chase her always to ensure rent is paid in the respective month. She now claims that she was diagnosed with COVID and in quarantine and cannot say when the rent will be deposited.  As I understand it, in MD, you can serve a notice when the rent is 5 days late and she is certainly late. I do not wish to be insensitive, but there is a substantial monthly rent in question, and I am not entirely comfortable with her tardy and somewhat evasive responses. Her being in quarantine does not stop an online transfer. 

Should I pro-actively serve her with the notice which will either prompt a payment or it might turn into a  full fledge adversarial position. Any advice?