Interesting. I would like to collect my rent in full, however, I am also not blind to the fact that about half of my tenants are not working. One is a hair stylist, two flight attendants, one event caterer, one wedding/event planner. Yet there are other tenants with office jobs who are not affected except the work is being conducted at home.
My cost will increase no doubt, due to everyone staying home. More water consumption, more electric consumption, in one property I even include internet and cable which I expect the internet to exceed the 2TB usage cap if the tenants are Netflix and chilling 24/7.
I have not yet reached out to my tenants about rent yet. I did reach out to all with a stay safe letter to advise all to let everyone to follow social distancing guidelines, to not hold any group parties at the property, to be mindful of excessive internet usage (that work at home is a necessity but binge watching shows around the clock is not), and to let me know if they have any maintenance requests because if and when our city or state (FL) implements a stay at home order I will switch to emergency service only mode.
My thinking on this rent issue is a two tiered strategy. I don't think I want to have individualized conversations with each tenant about their specific issues, not that I don't care, but I don't think I can provide relief individually, if I do something for Carol in apartment B I can't not offer it to Jim in apartment D. Some tenants talk to each other, especially when they are home much more now. I don't want to have to explain to Jim why Carol is getting something (it's not Jim's business) but I don't want Jim to feel that he's paying extra now. Someone suggested having to provide proof of income loss or unemployment. I am not sure that is a good idea either.
Since all my rentals required first, last and security deposits, I think if and when the first tenant reaches out about not being able to pay, I will apply last month's rent to cover the rent. I will leave it up to them how they want to do it. They can either take the entire last month's rent and cover one full month, or they can prorate it over a period of time, say if they want to split it over the next three months, then they only have to come up with 2/3 rent for the next three months. Their last month's rent is then due at the last month.
I am also seriously considering a rent credit with a weight tilted to longer term tenants. For example one formula could be:
$x * n
Let's say x could be a number such as $50. The n is a multiplier which is the number of years you have occupied the property.
If this is your forth year as a tenant, then the number works out to be $50*4 = $200.
If this is your first year as a tenant, then the number is just $50*1 = $50.
This is then the amount you can deduct from your rent for a period of say 60ndays or longer (until the eviction suspension is lifted) IF you pay the reduced rent on time. I am thinking this will be a fair way to give more relief to the better longer term tenants, and does not require me to have one to one conversations, reviewing evident of hardship, and making case by case decisions that may come back to me as being unfair treatments and playing favorites.
To me using the last month's rent plus a rent credit may be something that can hold people over several months plus it's an incentive for longer term tenants (which are typically better tenants) to stay longer.
