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Updated over 4 years ago, 03/18/2020
Coronavirus and your tenants
I wanted to put this out there to my fellow landlords that we should check on our tenants right now. The school closings could be devastating to some especially single parents with young children. I say this as someone who would have been in a very difficult position 10 year or so years ago had this happened when my son was a toddler. Fortunately, my tenants all reported that so far everything was good but I had a couple options prepared were that not the case: waiving the late fee for 30 days, charging 50% of next months rent and allowing them to do a payment plan to pay the remainder, or doing a payment plan for all of April’s rent depending on how dire the situation was. Customer service is important as a landlord!!! It is far easier to have a current tenant (especially a good one) resign a lease than search for a new tenant and they will remember that you checked on them during this time when it comes time to renew.
I also have a tenant who is scheduled to move out at the end of April, end of lease, and mutually agreed not to renew (wasn't a good fit).
Now she says she hasn't had a chance to look for housing, which is understandable. So now I am wondering what to do, of course one logical option would be to offer her a month to month, which is what I might end up doing.
@Sam Leon sounds like it would be beneficial to both of you to allow the month to month given it may be difficult to find a new tenant right now
@Shawn York that’s great advice to inform tenants now!
I'm sending something along these lines.
Greetings Everyone-
First of all, we would like to say that we hope everyone is safe and doing well. Crazy times right now with the COVID-19 coronavirus. We hope you are practicing social distancing and are all healthy.
So, on that topic, as we have already mentioned to everyone, we understand the very difficult times that are presently before us and that it’s caused massive confusion and anxiety. We know that many people are out of work or have had their hours cut etc. As a result, we have also said that we are willing to work with anyone that has been affected by all of this.
If your job or income has been affected, reach out to us and we will work together to see what we can do so that we do not lose a resident and you do not have to move. That would be a lose-lose situation for everyone. We prefer to work with people so we can have a win-win for both of everyone.
As you may have heard, the President of the United States has ordered the Housing Department to suspend all foreclosures and evictions until the end of April.
Please note, and please understand that this does not mean you are relieved of your obligation to pay rent. It simply means that if it is not paid, your eviction will not happen as soon as it normally would. It also does not mean you can simply stop your rent payments and pick them back up when the eviction suspension is lifted. April rent is still due on April 1st.
Having said that, please keep in mind what we said earlier… if you encounter any issues with your employment and you get laid-off or get your hours cut, contact us as soon as possible to discuss what we can do in order to make arrangement
Please stay safe and best of luck to everyone in these difficult times.
Fantastic @Shawn York I will be using this.
@Monica Johnson
FYI: Bounced it off a friend - he recommended adding something to the effect that if they do not reach out now then you will assume there is not any issue and will not retroactively work with them after they have missed a payment or are short.
So I will be adding that
@Shawn York I don't know much about the order to suspend all foreclosures and evictions, but can I still legally give my M2M tenant just cause notice to move? (I know you aren't the lawyer here.....) Or like, if my tenant is doing illegal things on my property, can I evict them for that? Do you have a link to better information on that order?
Originally posted by @Shawn York:
I'm sending something along these lines.
Greetings Everyone-
First of all, we would like to say that we hope everyone is safe and doing well. Crazy times right now with the COVID-19 coronavirus. We hope you are practicing social distancing and are all healthy.
So, on that topic, as we have already mentioned to everyone, we understand the very difficult times that are presently before us and that it’s caused massive confusion and anxiety. We know that many people are out of work or have had their hours cut etc. As a result, we have also said that we are willing to work with anyone that has been affected by all of this.
If your job or income has been affected, reach out to us and we will work together to see what we can do so that we do not lose a resident and you do not have to move. That would be a lose-lose situation for everyone. We prefer to work with people so we can have a win-win for both of everyone.
As you may have heard, the President of the United States has ordered the Housing Department to suspend all foreclosures and evictions until the end of April.
Please note, and please understand that this does not mean you are relieved of your obligation to pay rent. It simply means that if it is not paid, your eviction will not happen as soon as it normally would. It also does not mean you can simply stop your rent payments and pick them back up when the eviction suspension is lifted. April rent is still due on April 1st.
Having said that, please keep in mind what we said earlier… if you encounter any issues with your employment and you get laid-off or get your hours cut, contact us as soon as possible to discuss what we can do in order to make arrangement
Please stay safe and best of luck to everyone in these difficult times.
This is good. Washington just announced an eviction ban for 30 days. I am concerned that my tenants may build up such a large backlog of past due rent that when it is all due, they will be unable to pay. What do you think might be the recourse in such a situation?
@Julie Marquez
Sorry, no clue - but my best guess is "doubtful" News story I saw said all evictions.
With everything being in the state that it's in now, I'm guessing no court is staffed enough to look at the differences between non-payment and other things. Unfortunately I think this decision was sort of knee-jerk and a blanket statement and doesn't discern from one reason to the next. Eviction means eviction and anyone is going to say "oh well she can just wait"
Having said that, I'd see what I could do about calling and asking. I would guess you could still give the M2M tenant their notice and have it take effect 5/1 - but again, I'd call to make sure. (good luck getting through and getting an answer since all this just happened today I'm betting there are many questions floating around... just like this one)
No link, just the news story I saw. Tried pasting a link but didn't work - Just search eviction suspension and you'll find several stories - Good Luck!
@Kamran Rahman - I would guess that your only course of action would be eviction and going after them in court after this suspension period expired... good luck with that. I can see SUCH a backlog of eviction cases with all this. Depending on your lease you can keep the security deposit for the back rent, but it seems like any landlord in this case is going to end up on the losing end of things as far as what's owed vs what they end up getting.
I'm not an expert, this is just my opinion.
So... It appears that the foreclosure and eviction suspension may only apply to HUD owned properties. Anyone have any details? I still plan on working with my tenants, and suspect that Indy will join the whole host of other cities that are suspending evictions, but looking to see if anyone has any more info on this.