Small and large landlords, please share your experience in the comments so we can get a better feel of what is actually happening on the ground.
By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.
In addition to residential eviction bans issued by states and municipalities, including the one signed into law in California yesterday, there is the nationwide eviction-moratorium through December 31 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that came to light yesterday – which would be the broadest eviction ban yet.
The order covers all renters in the US below a certain income level (individuals who expect to earn less than $99,000 this year and joint filers expecting to earn less than $198,000). There are other limitations and requirements. But renters can still be evicted for reasons other than nonpayment of rent.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told the House coronavirus subcommittee yesterday that the moratorium would affect up to 40 million renters. This is far broader than the eviction ban under the CARES Act that applied only to renters in properties whose mortgages were backed by the government (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, VA, FHA, etc.), which covered about a quarter of all renters.
Under these eviction bans, renters still owe the rent, but they cannot be evicted for nonpayment of rent. Instead, the landlord can pursue legal action in the courts to obtain a judgement and then collect on the judgment, but cannot evict the tenant for nonpayment.
Rental properties are usually leveraged. Landlords – whether small landlords with one or two properties or large landlords with many properties or apartment buildings – carry mortgages on those properties and have to make mortgage payments. Many of those mortgages have been bundled into mortgage-backed securities, some backed by the government.
Even the massive landlords born out of the Financial Crisis, such as Invitation Homes that own tens of thousands of single-family houses each, fund their properties with debt, even if at the institutional level by issuing bonds and rent-backed structured securities.
Now there is a risk that these cash-flows up the pipeline, from renters to landlords to creditors and investors are halted, triggering a rolling tsunami of defaults and foreclosures amid landlords.
Or so it would seem. But really?
Surveys by Apartment List of about 4,000 households have indicated that about one-third of households did not make their full housing payments in July and August. One-third! That would be a huge problem.
These “housing payments” include rents and mortgage payments, and we know that mortgages are defaulting in large numbers and are entering forbearance agreements with the lenders.
In terms of rents, Apartment List says: “Among renters with unpaid housing bills, 49 percent have either negotiated, or are in the process of negotiating, an arrangement with their landlord.”
But this dismal data on nonpayment, based on household surveys, does not parallel data supplied by large landlords.
The National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC), which represents landlords of multifamily apartment buildings has started to track rent payments during the Pandemic. This is based on data submitted by landlords — not 4,000 household surveys — on 11.4 million “professionally managed” market-rate rental properties.
Some renters were late even during the Good Times. But how have rent payments deteriorated due to the unemployment crisis?
The NMHC found that as of August 27, 92.1% of apartment households made a full or partial payment for August, down by 1.9 percentage point from August 27 last year (94.0%).
It provides further detail for each week of August:
- By Aug 6: 79.3% of rent payments made, down by 1.9 percentage points from Aug 6, 2019 (81.2%).
- By Aug 13: 86.9% of rent payments made, down by 2.0 percentage points from Aug 13, 2019 (88.9%).
- By Aug 20: 90.0% of rent payments made, down by 2.1 percentage points from Aug 20, 2019 (92.1%).
- By Aug 27: 92.1% of rent payments made, down by 1.9 percentage points from Aug 27, 2019 (94.0%).
The chart shows rent collections by week, compared to the same week in the same month last year. The percentages are based on total occupied units, excluding vacant units. Also excluded are purpose-built student housing, privatized military housing, and subsidized affordable units:
If this deterioration of nonpayment of 1.9 percentage points, as experienced by landlords of 11.4 million apartments, is applied to 43 million renters in the US, it would mean that roughly 817,000 households in the US have fallen behind on rent due to the unemployment crisis.
This is not anywhere near the huge numbers being thrown around in the media and by lobbying groups. For example, The Aspen Institute proclaimed that “20 Million Renters Are at Risk of Eviction.” That would be almost half the renters in the US.
So what is it? 817,000 or 20 million?
Landlords, big and small — yes, you! — please share your rent-payment experience in the comments below.
We’re trying to get a grip on what is actually playing out on the ground. If you are a small landlord with one or two units, or if you’re a larger landlord with lots of units, please share your experience in the comments below so that everyone can get a better feel for what is going on here.
You don’t need to give your actual name (screen name is fine). The more info you can provide about your rentals, the better. This might include:
- State or metro they’re in
- Big city, smaller town, rural
- How many total units
- Apartments or houses
- How many (or %) vacant; how is this different from a year ago
- How many nonpayments for August vs. a year ago
- Have you agreed to temporarily reduced rent payments? On how many units?
- Other factors that might shed some light on this.
This is just an informal survey, and it won’t have statistical value, but if enough landlords participate, we can get a better feel for what landlords and tenants face. You can come back over the next few days and read the comments to see how other landlords are doing. Thank you.
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I work in commercial real estate at a large company with a national presence. Collections are on par with the NMCH range on our multifamily portfolio which is almost exclusively class A. Most of these tenants are white collar, including single 20-somethings, young couples in their 30s (some with kids), as well as divorcees and empty nesters. Most are paying on time and have not had their jobs cut.
Another thing to note is that most major landlords offered tenants payment plans back in March (such as 1/2 month’s rent for 3 months, to be paid back over the remaining months of the lease). I’m sure a lot of people took that offer, so collections may have held steadier as a result. Not sure where some of that stands right now.
Also note that the NMHC tracker caused a bit of consternation in the industry when it first started making the rounds on the CRE news circuit in April… their week-by-week collections info wasn’t fully explained, so people saw that 79% of people paid rent in the first week of the month and started to panic. Anecdotally, it seems the industry is in relative alignment with the NMHC’s figures now that they’ve explained the tracker better.
That said, I think collections are steady not only because of govt cash transfers, but because of self-selection – people who can’t pay rent are moving out and finding alternative housing options. So while collections as a % are steady among properties’ total tenant pool, it’s likely that many properties are dipping in occupancy. This is leading to concessions and rent reductions that are keeping people paying rent – but definitely not at the same level they were paying before.
Across the board, the urban luxury properties are suffering since the urban high-rise lifestyle is really nonexistent due to covid. This gets back to your post about Zumper data (which I don’t’ necessarily trust, because some of those cities posting rent gains look suspiciously high to me). That said, the downside in many cities is likely as bad, or even worse than that data shows. I think there’s serious misreporting going on about rent data because concessions across the country for most Class A apartments are from 1-3 months on a 12/13 month lease – on top of any reduction in asking rent, which may be 5%-10% from last year. In addition, many luxury properties are waiving fees that are often a source of income – application, parking, “amenity” fees that are collected upon signing a lease or monthly. These can add up to thousands of dollars over the life of a lease.
Concessions are even being offered on renewals. Also, many properties are offering huge Visa gift cards – I saw a NYC rental with a $3000 gift card for a new lease signing. This is a newer property management trick to try and disguise rent concessions from owners, operating statements, and from data collection services. Plus, investors seem willing to buy apartment properties at full, pre-covid pricing despite concessions, in the hope they go away. So if you’re looking to sell your building, you may be more concerned about occupancy and asking rent levels than you are income. Some buyers are also using “income guarantees” so that the seller has to cough up $ if income drops below a certain level within the next handful of months.
As another aside, I think there’s a host of reasons for why we’re seeing urban luxury rents dipping – I don’t believe it’s a mass exodus, but a combination of factors that add up to a significant impact to the high-priced, ultra competitive urban luxury market.
1. Renters who were 2-3 years out from buying a home have accelerated that decision since it’s not worth waiting for cities to fully reopen.
2. People are moving to larger, cheaper suburban apartments in the metro. Young families may be moving to suburban school districts which are more likely to have in-person classes.
3. Concessions are a race to the bottom and urban renters are willing to move to a nearby building if it means they save $5000+ due to multi-month concessions. Young people are especially savvy about this.
4. With hiring down, and most office jobs doing WFH, there’s no new influx of renters coming into cities. So tenants leaving the rental market entirely aren’t being backfilled with new entrants. Don’t forget that new college graduates are a tremendous source of new urban renters – many of them are just moving back home to save $$ or staying on campus with their college friends, many who are working their new job remotely.
5. Supply waves in major cities are exacerbating the problem.
Nick Kelly:
“It is too early to tell what will happen”.
Exactly!
We’re getting a sniff….that’s all.
If support payments of any and all kinds begin to taper off I guarantee we will see some very dire moments.
Community/State/Fed tax harvesting will be attacked by locusts with inability to pay.
Then, where will those tax monies come from????
Our economy, especially the many hundreds of thousands of small businesses work like a “light switch”!
Vaccine here; economy just “bounces” back.
Right now in my opinion it is very early days. There is still lots of “confidence” and savings sloshing around. When the feathers hit the fan it will change, dramatically. It has to.
In the area where I live most small businesses don’t know what to do. They open, they close, they socially distance, they modify, then they just say, “screw it!” No longer worth the efforts.
Like Mr. Kelly says….”It’s too early to tell!”
I have an annual rental in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Tennant is hiding behind moratorium and not returning property managers attempts to contact. Tennant is 5 months in arrears….
Most likely the people replying on here are renting to people that have the ability to work remotely (tech) or government jobs.
Still could be a lot of axe swinging to come, who knows.
I have personally seen a lot of friends that were renters buy houses. At some point this has to show up as well.
I own a 4-plex in Northern California. I would love to share my experience and read about other landlords situations.
But I don’t want to wade through all the other bullshit and drivel posted here to get to the posts that actually are what was originally requested.
Please increase the moderation.
Find a nice spot down by the river so that you have bathing and laundry facilities. Perhaps a lake in a pinch, but flowing water is always much better.
James lost his job last week, but we re-decided we’d pay rent no matter what. / it’s stressful to miss the most basic important cost and you can’t think you’re way into anything better once you go into “fuck it”/nothing-left-to-lose mode.
and after what happened in 2010, i also expect that the next wave of landlords will be more Terminator-like REIT corporations who buy pallets of foreclosed homes never even offered to the public. so i’ve re-fallen in love with the devil i know because at least he’s got a heartbeat still.
and to those who rely on credit reports, i’m so attached to this building and defend my landlord even when we’re fighting each other, because people took a chance on me back when i was lost and actually trying desperately to leave san francisco because i’d fallen in with an illegal canadian prostitute and her driver had gotten stalked by the FBI for robbing a bank, and we were staying in the juke box building with a fat guy who said he worked at lehman bros and scammed the marriot for a suite and limo service for the hooker he never paid and her sidekick who had nowhere else to stay and wanted desperately to return to philadelphia and her huge apartment with fireplace and family over the bridge in jersey…
and look at me now!
dancing outside weekly at 24th/potrero to save the life of this town and bring back the freaks.
so thanks to those who looked beyond the horrid credit check of a life in a declining america and gave people like me a chance to live a new life. / and the affordability enables me to give back to this town.
just an aside.
because you have to be near suicidal and pretty much totally given up to stop paying rent on where you live.
x
KL,
Sorry to hear about James. Maybe it’s time to do something different?
BTW, your life is way too interesting.
yes! you’re hella funny and hella KNOWING because when it happened i was relieved and James tried to stay stressed and in worry mode, but i felt even HIS energy come alive.
we’re good with money in the bank for half a year and hopefully UI will add another 6 mos.
but YES… it IS most definitely “time to do something different.”
i can’t write about it even on my end yet, because i’m in shameless road trip mind / scary Leo mode about what’s next.
you’ll see and others will see leaks here, but out in front once things open up for the next Wolf Meet.
Steve with the Motorcycle set the level i knew i had to keep up on my end with how the Wolf Meet STARTED. i knew what he’d done even if Wolf didn’t quite… (yet)…
and you, Petunia? ha! hardly done with YOU. you’re the person everyone should try to be wooing now to make it through this all later.
but i see you…
i crib your notes…
(smile)
x
p.s. my life always has been way too interesting even during covid. everyone’s living on their phones and you will neeever find me and all “this” in any goddamn phone and that’s the point and what i’m trying to kick up over here. talk about raising buses up off a run over people.
Wolf is one of the very few men in this town who’s been able to not only show up and see me but walk up to me and start a fucking conversation. it’s the funniest thing. says so much about Wolf, even HE has no idea …(yet!).
but no, Petunia, you and i aren’t done. somehow i’m gonna get to you… psychically spiritually or actually.
We’re from Massachusetts, and had a 1 year lease with tenants, with intentions to sell after the lease. The tenant stopped paying rent before Covid, and we had a court date for eviction, but that got put on hold because of Covid. Tenant hasn’t paid a dime since January, and we can’t do anything about it. Just seems ridiculous. As far as we know he’s working.
We live out of state, and have a mortgage on that home, so i don’t think we can do forbearance with the mortgage company. Hearing that the moratorium now goes to the end of the year is heartbreaking. Sure, some people need help, but in our case the tenants are just taking advantage.
State or metro they’re in
MA
Big city, smaller town, rural
Rural
How many total units
10+, don’t want to get too detailed. Less than 100. Midsize landlord?
Apartments or houses
Small multifamilies
How many (or %) vacant; how is this different from a year ago
Currently have a squatter I can’t get out because of COVID. Squatter is a known and dangerous criminal.
How many nonpayments for August vs. a year ago
People are spacing their rents through the month. 100% payment for filled units.
Have you agreed to temporarily reduced rent payments? On how many units?
No.
Other factors that might shed some light on this.
In the market I’m in, and every market I’m watching (mostly rural to small cities, under 1mm population), prices are shooting up as inventory is consumed or taken off the market. I am moving forward with development plans of my own to build a larger apartment building, and every contractor in my home market is booked up with new construction.
A lot of good info here, but I don’t seem to see any in the “peak” areas: SF, NY, expensive parts of LA, etc.
I lived and rented in many places. A fair rent is one thing – but the place I live now doubled the rent from 2015 to present. Given that I have rented there for a decade now – these increases have nothing to do with cost.
So for every non-peak area where rents are much lower – there are the places where rents are not at all low.
Note that San Francisco rent was higher than central Tokyo even in 2002…
c1ue,
Quite a few about Bay Area and SF. Including my comment above with data from four large landlords in the Bay Area, including San Francisco.
@Wolf
Thanks – I had missed the 4 owner comment you made.
Downtown/prime SF consistent with what I’m seeing; last weekend, at least 4 units were moving out (50 unit or so complex). At least 2 others the weekend before.
I can tell because there’s always a Recology pile after a move – in the last weekend’s case, my wife told me that it was 4 people combining.
At least 2 of the 6 were foreign students departing due to COVID-19 impact on in-person in CA – leaving the country.
I was traveling all weekend and early this week – first time in 2020.
The difference between SFO vs CLT, DFW, MCO, MIA was enormous.
San Francisco vs. Orlando and Miami was even more enormous.
The 2020 economy numbers between the various states will be very interesting…
San Francisco
Own a three-unit building. No mortgage. One tenant affected by the pandemic at workplace is about $3K behind on rent. We have been upfront that we will continue to work with him. One unit was vacated to move back east. The unit re-rented quickly at 15% less than the previous tenant.
Co-own a three-unit building. No mortgage. Fully rented. The last rental re-rented at 10% less than the previous tenant.
I own 12,000 units in the Midwest. We had 150 units that are delinquent. We were getting ready to file for eviction on these folks who haven’t paid since March and now we are stuck. Our collections are not horrible. We are low to mid 90s on collections. How does Trump claim to be a conservative – seems like something AOC would have agreed to. There is a dangerous trend in America for disregarding the capitalist system that made our country great. Scary times.
it’s called “Pandering to voters”. not too surprising. Survival.
Both sides falling overthemselves to buy votes.
Wolf, my wife’s family owns a 22 unit apartment complex in Pacific Beach in San Diego. We screen our prospective tenants thoroughly, e.g., no negatives on open accounts, no collections activity in last five years, no BK or foreclosures. We have renovated the units over the last three years as they vacate, spending $30-40K per unit (and two months of foregone rent, additionally). Women with good jobs — many are sales reps — love the beautifully renovated units, and they rent quickly. All of our tenants have made their rental payments to-date, including for September. We consider ourselves fortunate and blessed.
My father-in-law built the complex back in 1970, and the family owns the complex outright. We position our units just below neighborhood comparables, and our newest leases are just above the San Diego medians per Zumper’s monthly reports. We stopped our annual 2% increases in March, when Covid came to the fore. We have had no requests for rent reductions or delays. We had one move-out back in March from a tenant whose finances took a turn for the worse due to Covid. That unit re-rented immediately, and we have had no move outs since then, which is unusual. I would not doubt that parents are now helping some of the folks who rent here.
My family has a single rental house on the central coast of California. So far the rent has always been on time. This is a long time tenant with a rental rate that was somewhat below market before the covid crisis struck.
Hi Wolf. I own a two family house in Portland, Maine. I live in one unit and rent the other. My tenant, who usually pays on time on the 1st, sent me a text on the 2nd saying he and his wife had fallen on “hard times” and that they were “hopefully going to be able to pay rent,” (1650.00) on the 10th. I really enjoy your site – thanks for all your analysis!
I posted earlier stating all my tenants paid.
Well, no more. I must have jinxed it.
A tenant in CA paid only 25% of the rent this month.
The tenant still has a job (works for the military) with the same pay and is not sick of covid, so I wonder what to do?
Based on what I see, the tenant simply decided not to pay.
This looks like a case of “hey, everyone says not to pay rent, so…”.
Bad times are coming for landlords.
And ultimately tenants too. But the “free rent” party seems to be catching on, courtesy of our woke and spineless politicians.
MikeLebos,
You need to check the new eviction ban in California. This may be where the 25% is coming from — there is a provision in it of that type. Under the new California law, your tenant may have to prove that he has been impacted by the pandemic, such as a job loss. I’m also not sure if this is superseded by the CDC eviction ban. I think you need to ask a lawyer who’s familiar with this stuff in California.
Dear Mike: with active duty military who have become deadbeats you don’t doodle around exhausting your rights under state law. You follow a 2 prong approach: you follow state and local laws but also you notify your tenant’s military command staff. It’s not a dick move to reach out to command if your tenant has a deployment or service-related hardship because there are innumerable rights and assistance for service members with true hardship. But a deadbeat service member playing games with landlords and other creditors is also a national security issue. Innumerable service members with money problems have become spies or stolen equipment to cover debt. Send a letter addressed to the tenant’s commanding officer and CC: the military police unit that covers the relevant base. Registered mail and certified mail is expensive so send each copy priority mail with delivery confirmation. Before sealing envelopes write or type the tracking mail ID number on each copy. These kind of issues get fixed real quick without ending up in the service member’s jacket unless the tenant is real slime.
Wolf, you are right. After some back and forth between the tenant and my property management company, the tenant agreed to pay rent in full. It turns out the tenant had no grounds to avoid paying rent, but still thought this new law could be used as a savings account at my expense.
In the aftermath, even though the rent will be paid, you can just smell moral hazard in the air…
My tenants stopped paying the nanosecond Governor Polis (Colorado) forced a 30 day notice requirement the day I had given them the legal 10 day notice to pay rent or leave. That was 5 months ago. They both still have jobs and the husband is making more money than ever. But because Polis’ order was so vague, and even though I kept winning in court, their SJW pro-bono lawyer kept submitting motions that the court was unwilling to put a stop to. There were NO guidelines and the courts didn’t want to get overturned no matter how obvious it was that my tenants had the money but just knew they could get away without paying. I lived on nothing for years and held two jobs to buy a house with enough down so that the rent would pay both the mortgage and fuel my dream company startup.
If Trump wants to stop evictions then why doesn’t he send me a check? Make all of America have some skin in the game instead of just those of us who sacrificed time and potentially capital to invest in real estate? Or make sure the CDC policy forces tenants to minimally supply ANY documentation that they have been harmed by C19 instead of just signing a BS form? He’s lost my vote. Sigh. He’s no better than the rest.
Dear SLB: if you are a small time landlord in most states in Covid times landlord can still pursue no-cause eviction if you require occupancy for yourself or immediate family. Maybe you need a change of scene and want to downsize. Maybe you and your spouse aren’t getting along and want to separate. Maybe your adult child is taking an off year from that crappy college and needs a place to live. Follow the letter of the law but when someone steals from you and uses the law to steal from you then use the law to protect your rights. Also, pay a private investigator to knock on doors around your rental and make sure there’s no illegal activity. In addition, most states and urban counties have a landlord association: join.
Upstate NY – rural
I own a home, live in the downstairs and rent out the upstairs. Its the only way I keep my house. The tenant hasn’t paid since July. He has been working the whole time. He even went to 2nd shift because they offered him more money. I went to start eviction and was told no evictions were being heard. His lease is up the end of September so I am hoping I can evict him then. If not, I will certainly lose my house.
Cindy,
This is really sad. Thanks for sharing.
Retired couple. We own four rental properties. Currently two of our tenants are paying, one us on a reduced rent protocol and the other just gave notice after not paying for three months because they are buying their own house. They used the WA state moratorium to avoid rent and save their money for a down payment.
I’m not sure how the rest of the year will play out with my other tenants. We are not in a financial position to carry renters for months in end.
Long term player since 1976. Sold all rentals in Maryland due to constantly changing government oversight. Manage 7 rentals in Myrtle Beach SC. This a tough area with a lot of potential deadbeats. Currently, the rental market here is very tight. I have one long term renter who owes a couple of hundred. Her former husband stopped paying child support so she was short. No biggie. I had a tenant move out in March due to a job relocation but decided not to rent the unit due to the state’s eviction moratorium. I have had former tenants contact me due to the tight market but I won’t rent that unit. If you can’t trust the government you can’t trust anyone. I turned the ac to 78 and the water heater off. I will wait it out. Last year I had a hunch something was about to happen so I started building up my cash. Recently, there was an article in the local paper about some tenants who had paid the rent for three years then stopped paying as soon as the eviction moratorium was enacted. Once it expired they were evicted and they totally wrecked the house out of spite. Over $100,000 in damages. My take on this CDC ruling is that it is unconstitutional. The constitution states the government can’t take your property without just compensation but that’s precisely what has occurred. Its the biggest land grab in history. Out of 7 rentals i have 2 mortgages. And one will expire in two years. I am going to try to pay the other one off in the next 5 years. It’s actually a very tight market here right now. But the COVID-19 crisis has been poorly handled at all levels so who knows what will happen next. Good luck to the moms and pops landlords out there. You’re the odd man out and nobody cares.
I have 9 units in Cambridge, MA. Before covid we had one of the strongest rental markets in the country. Normally we would have had a full re-rental 3 months before the end of the current leases on 8/31. This year we were lucky that 3 of the units renewed. Because of the big universities canceling the fall semester, most apartments are empty in the area. I’m just breaking even (thankfully the 3 tenants are still paying), but with the moratorium, I’m wondering if it’s even worth it to rent the others…especially here with the dark specter of rent control on the horizon.
That being said, this is all a leftist scheme to end private ownership of property. Once the get their grubby hands on housing & healthcare, it’s all over.
G,
“That being said, this is all a leftist scheme to end private ownership of property.”
The CDC’s eviction ban was based on Trump’s Executive Order. So if you call Trump “a leftist,” then mmmmoookay
Or are you going to blame Obama for it ?
Does it really matter who is at fault? There are tens of thousands mom and pop landlords out there as well as large institutions being forced to carry the load. As far as a leftist scheme look at cities with rent controls. The rents are usually higher than they would be without rent control. Yes, government takeover of any industry is a leftist move. Once it’s done the damage is done and it doesn’t matter who was at fault. The blame game is political and offers little in the way of a solution. And look at Healthcare. Once Obamacare passed deductibles went sky high and many premiums tripled. So the point is well made that government intrusion is rarely wise and there isn’t any system except maybe the military which is the result of government planning which is successful.
Robert,
“Once Obamacare passed deductibles went sky high and many premiums tripled.”
High-deductible plans were introduced under Bush; they provide a tax deduction via an HSA (works like an IRA only better). We’ve had one since 2006. Best thing since sliced bread. You get a big tax deduction that pays about 1/3 of your LOW premiums, and if you’re healthy and have a decent taxable income, it’s the best deal ever. I wish I could give Obama credit for it, but credit goes to Bush. Obama just incorporated it into Obamacare.
Our company rents a premises on St.Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2. It is a prestigious address in central Dublin city.
The building is owned by a landlord and it is a protected/listed building which means it cannot be renovated externally because of it’s historical significance in Irish history.
We pay €25k per month rent or €300k per annum.
In fairness to the landlord, he’s a good guy and he’s not dependent on increasing our rent.
But due to the loss of business our company is experiencing severe difficulty meeting the rent roll payment and all of the other expenses for payroll, utility bills, insurance bills etc.
The landlord has told us that he can’t reduce the rent roll but he accepts that our turnover is down 45% YOY, this year
I’m a real estate attorney (handling evictions for landlords) and a landlord myself in the Boise, Idaho area. The VAST majority of my clients are working with tenants on payment arrangements and deferrals. The number of evictions for non-payment has dropped considerably. What I am seeing, however, is problem tenants (those that have spotty payment histories and persistent lease term violators) are using the moratorium(s) to get free rent. They know the landlord’s likelihood of getting several thousand dollars out of them after January 1 is slim to none. Responsible tenants are making arrangements and doing what they can. Some of them will be socked with huge rent bills they can’t afford when it expires and they’ll be saddled with credit damage and increasing interest. The bad tenants will take advantage of the situation, not pay anything and don’t care that there’s a judgment against them. So, in short, we are punishing the landlords and good tenants who try to their best to make arrangements and rewarding the crappy, irresponsible tenants. Not a good solution in my opinion.
Yeah, thats about it.
I have many house in Bend, Oregon and all are paid up and on time. Of the three houses in Idaho I have one terrible tenant I gave a 30 day no cause as it’s month to month,but gave her 60 days to be ‘nice’. She, of course, quit paying rent so I did a 3 day failure to pay eviction the day before the CDC announcement and the deadbeat tenant texted me like 1 hour after the news broke!
This is not Trump’s fault. It’s the deep state fighting back. He’s amazing, but only one man. Without a majority in Congress there will be more of this, so figure out where the Congressional seats are and reach out to everyone you know in those districts and have an actual conversation with them about this!
I’m immigrant and small landlord having only one multifamily house. Me along with my father purchased this house and hoped the rent would help pay the mammoth mortgage including property taxes.
Unfortunately I got a worst kind of tenant and even during good times tenant was either late or holded 100 or 200$ and we ignored. In july of 2019 we verbally informed tenant(whose lease was already expired) that we will need the apartment back in early or mid 2020. We again reminded them this in Sept 2019. Tenant never answered or acknowledge. Then 2019 sept tenant paid only half rent while in October paid nothing. Nov to Feb tenant paid rent but refused to pay sept half and oct rent and told us to use security deposit which we didn’t agree. In February 3rd week tenant was asked to hand over the apartment by end of April which she simply refused and then asked for a notice. We paid the attorney who gave official notice in 3rd week of February asking to leave the apartment by end of April 30th. Tenant didn’t respond and retaliated by stopping all rent payments since then, also refused to communicate any further and blackmailed us threatening to call the police and claim harassment, so we have no communication since then. She also have unknown people living there without our approval(at least 2 couples(2 men 2 women in addition)). There is a lot of slamming noise on wood floor upstairs even at night 12 AM.
The unjust moratorium came in March and then came April and tenant still there. In July tenant was seen loading her stuff on truck, but the unknown people still here till today Sept 2020. 2 days ago there was loud noise upstairs in tenant apartment kinda like hammer, and we were having water leaking out of electric fixture. Despite of knocking door on 3 different occasion, nobody came to open the door while there were heavy foot steps noise upstairs.
Tenant often come after few weeks and stay for a day or 2 and leave. We suspect she is collecting rent from these unknown people, while we don’t get a dime. All that plus we still have to pay for maintenance, taxes, mortgage, insurance, etc etc. The Federal, State and City govt along with Courts have shut the doors of justice on people like us and left us on the mercy of rogue tenants like this. Despite of calling 311 and courts several times, and despite of writing emails to my senator, mayor and governor explaining how much mentally torture kind of situation me and my family going through, nobody is there to help.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m sympathetic with good responsible tenants as we too were once tenants and never gave any trouble to our landlord(our landlord actually was emotional when we were leaving as we were like a family despite both of us from different racial, cultural backgrounds).
I suspect you don’t have a lease or why wouldn’t you have evicted them as soon as they stopped paying? You are going to need professional help to get her/ them out. In the future check their background and also have them provide a credit report. There are also services which can do this for you. Don’t rent to anyone who has ever been evicted and don’t rent to anyone with a credit score under 635. Write a lease and then enforce the lease.