Are You Going to Pay Rent on the First of April?

At a minimum, I'd expect most tenants to at least attempt to workout payment arrangements with landlords if they're unable to pay rent because of a COVID related monetary setback. The inability to pay full rent may be an unfortunate economic reality for some, but simply not paying rent "just because" is idiotic and reckless.

Yes but the gov backed mortgages do not need to be paid during this shut down, correct or no? Can they not be postponed or paid at the end of the loan??

The Explainer wrote:

explain the connection wrote:

What exactly is the argument for not paying rent that is owed for an apartment/house? For commercial property, an argument could be made that the space is unusable and the tenant thus should not be responsible for paying rent on an office that they aren't allowed to occupy. But COVID-19 doesn't prevent you from using your home, so why would you not pay your rent/mortgage if owed?

I'm just not seeing the nexus between the COVID-19 shutdown and the residential rent strike.

People aren't working so they don't have money to pay the rent. That's the nexus.

I understand that people don't want to draw down assets while the market is down, but part of being an adult is taking the hit to cover your obligations.

Noyankee wrote:

Yes but the gov backed mortgages do not need to be paid during this shut down, correct or no? Can they not be postponed or paid at the end of the loan??

You need to establish a financial hardship to qualify for things like deferment or forbearance.

Many people who live in standard crap box apartments won't care about three months of rent debt. They will keep all the unemployment keep all the stimulus money or party and treat themselves to purchases. They didn't have to put much down on the apartment, maybe half a months rent that they know they aren't getting back anyway because the trashed the apartment. They will just trade places in other standard crap box apartments with others who didn't pay.

Landlords won't have a choice, but to go along or leave all those boxes vacant. Hell, the landlords will give them first month's rent free too.

Yes, my guess is many renters could qualify under the same guidelines as mortgage holders. Maybe more actually.

Why pay rent on April Fools day, it's a joke to do so

Noyankee wrote:

Yes but the gov backed mortgages do not need to be paid during this shut down, correct or no? Can they not be postponed or paid at the end of the loan??

They are postponing payments but the money is still owed and the interest is still accruing. The only thing that is not happening is foreclosure or late fees. The money is still owed.

Yes, mortgage holders pay when they can pay and renters are evicted with poor credit. Mortgage holders also enjoy the benefit of time when their payment situation today can be altered tomorrow. I don't understand how it's sustainable for renters to carry the weight of immediate obligation?

I own 19 units. 18 were occupied at the beginning of April.

Of those 18 units, 8 have paid rent as of today. Most of my tenants would be considered middle or lower middle class. We screen well, but many won't have income until this is resolved.

Most of my places are 3-4 units, and my lowest quality property, zero of three folks have paid. I don't have any property where everyone has paid.

Not sure what we'll do with folks who don't pay through the quarantine. With this group, it will be really hard to get them to pay anything. Eviction can be really expensive, and counter-productive.

I have a good property management company. We'll work on a strategy that generates the most income, and that will be a range of rent forgiveness, partial or full payback, or eviction.

Landlord Perspective wrote:

I own 19 units. 18 were occupied at the beginning of April.

Of those 18 units, 8 have paid rent as of today. Most of my tenants would be considered middle or lower middle class. We screen well, but many won't have income until this is resolved.

Most of my places are 3-4 units, and my lowest quality property, zero of three folks have paid. I don't have any property where everyone has paid.

Not sure what we'll do with folks who don't pay through the quarantine. With this group, it will be really hard to get them to pay anything. Eviction can be really expensive, and counter-productive.

I have a good property management company. We'll work on a strategy that generates the most income, and that will be a range of rent forgiveness, partial or full payback, or eviction.

This may sound like a joke, but do you have fire insurance?

Don't give him ideas, lots of landlords will be burning their building down.

Funny you should mention that. I will preface this story; I haven't spoken with my father since 1982, and he died about 15 years ago. My mom mentioned that he had a few rental properties that went up in smoke in the mid -1970's He was friends with some local mobsters. When his gambling debts got too big, there was an easy way to take care of the problem. My grandmother's best friend's son was the local mob boss. He's currently doing life in prison, for what I understand is a big misunderstanding. He's a good boy. My dad did some time too, but that's another story. I am fortunate to own most of the buildings without a mortgage. I am also not highly leveraged and have cash on hand to survive. I do love restoring buildings and put a lot back into my properties. The biggest impact in the near and mid-term is delaying some maintenance and improvements while this is going on. A quick rule of thumb is that about 50% of your rent will go towards maintaining the property. Basically, the principal and interest on your mortgage, Taxes, Insurance, some utilities, and trash, etc. If I can collect 40-50% of my rents, I can be ok. As a property owner, if you maintain your properties, invest for cash-flow and not be greedy, you can come out ok....and not be reliant on gas and match.

not a joke wrote:

Landlord Perspective wrote:

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This may sound like a joke, but do you have fire insurance?

Carol Baskin wrote:

At a minimum, I'd expect most tenants to at least attempt to workout payment arrangements with landlords if they're unable to pay rent because of a COVID related monetary setback. The inability to pay full rent may be an unfortunate economic reality for some, but simply not paying rent "just because" is idiotic and reckless.

Well, yeah, they're unable to pay rent because they lost income when their jobs were shut down.

There are no payment arrangements to be made. They don't have the money.

I have a partner, Jeff Lowe who skips payments all the time.

Renters are not able to carry the immediate financial burden of mortgage holders, landlords and banks. Fails ethically as well. One groups children eat well without the financial burden of a mortgage while the other groups children are on the street, under equal circumstances. I just do not see how this goes beyond April, if the renters even allow that?