An article seen from a landlord’s POV

[Nick Rutkowski]

Just read this article this morning. It comes from a landlord’s perspective of what’s going on in this current crisis and how state regulations are effecting her business. I think some of us can relate to her situation. Thought it was a good read. What do you all think?

https://apple.news/A08bKqlIPQBisgvycLtOoSQ

[Ruth C.]

With all due respect, I think the people playing that "landlords are irresponsible and only have themselves to blame" are part of a concerted neoliberal effort to squeeze out small landlords out of the real estate market.

My parents couldn't have been more fiscally responsible. They were so fiscally responsible that they were able to pass the savings onto their tenants...only to have many of those tenants decide to skip out on rent, thanks to aggressive laws on the part of fringe tenant advocacy groups in cities like NYC that have given deadbeat tenants all the concessions in the world to not pay rent. 

Some people will argue, "Well, it's your parents' own damned fault for not screening tenants properly." Well, here is the further twist in the knife. These fringe tenant groups have been successfully getting laws passed making it all but impossible for landlords to screen tenants. Just this past fall in NYC, landlords were barred from sharing a blacklist, denying a prospective tenant based on a recent eviction, even looking up housing court records. This is all "violation of rights", "discrimination", etc. and punishable by in the thousands. 

The point isn't to complain but to make this larger point--no one would chide a grocery store for going out of business if laws practically made it legal for customers to get thousands of dollars of free food a month. But apparently, you can do this for small landlords. 

The reason why I cite that as "neoliberalism" is that invocation of responsibility in a scenario where it doesn't apply is a classic talking point. It's trying to pretend that a person's problems are all due to himself or herself alone, when there are various outside forces that have forced this person's hand.