Author Topic: letter to Mayor: demand landlords forgive February's Rent!  (Read 13038 times)

OurTown

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Re: letter to Mayor: demand landlords forgive February's Rent!
« Reply #50 on: January 26, 2017, 09:13:54 AM »
Boy has this topic ever gone off the rails!  So I was born in October, my half brother was born two months earlier in August.  Dad was a rock and roll musician.  I guess classic rockers back in the late 60s got a lot of tail and didn't use birth control.

jinga nation

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Re: Mayor: demand landlords forgive February's Rent!
« Reply #51 on: January 26, 2017, 10:47:56 AM »
This is bizarre. Will the banks forgive landlords mortgage payment if landlords forgive rent? 
Will shareholders forgive the banks for reduced or no dividends?

wevan

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Re: Mayor: demand landlords forgive February's Rent!
« Reply #52 on: January 26, 2017, 01:07:17 PM »
This is bizarre. Will the banks forgive landlords mortgage payment if landlords forgive rent? 
Will shareholders forgive the banks for reduced or no dividends?
And what if one of the renters is also a shareholder?  The economy just gets more and more interconnected!

Shor

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Re: Mayor: demand landlords forgive February's Rent!
« Reply #53 on: January 27, 2017, 03:42:00 PM »
This is bizarre. Will the banks forgive landlords mortgage payment if landlords forgive rent? 
Will shareholders forgive the banks for reduced or no dividends?
And what if one of the renters is also a shareholder?  The economy just gets more and more interconnected!
The renter was banking on that dividend to pay the rent! Worse yet the stock now crashed due to missing the dividend...

Metric Mouse

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Re: Mayor: demand landlords forgive February's Rent!
« Reply #54 on: January 27, 2017, 07:01:15 PM »
This is bizarre. Will the banks forgive landlords mortgage payment if landlords forgive rent? 
Will shareholders forgive the banks for reduced or no dividends?
And what if one of the renters is also a shareholder?  The economy just gets more and more interconnected!
The renter was banking on that dividend to pay the rent! Worse yet the stock now crashed due to missing the dividend...
And now the renter will have to sell off some shares to cover the rent, putting further pressure on the share price...

MrsPete

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Re: letter to Mayor: demand landlords forgive February's Rent!
« Reply #55 on: January 27, 2017, 07:45:58 PM »
How do these people justify the following:

- Low income landlords are encouraged to apply for some type of public assistance
- No such suggestion is made for paycheck-to-paycheck renters

- Workers can't get to work, shoppers aren't out spending money
- Parents are expected to work and are stuck paying last-minute day care

- Renters aren't expected to have emergency savings to cover such expenses; in fact, they specify that extensions on rent are unacceptable -- it must be total amnesty from rent
- Landlords should be expected to forego the rent completely

The comments are quite reasonable; the most common comment being "the landlords have mortgages to pay".

Undecided

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Re: letter to Mayor: demand landlords forgive February's Rent!
« Reply #56 on: January 27, 2017, 07:58:05 PM »
Back on topic:  I don't disagree with the spirit of the letter.  Maybe February's rent should be 0, with the loss recouped  over the remaining 10 months of the year.  Evictions hurt landlords, too.  They aren't quick, they clog up courts and then they leave the landlord with vacancies. 
I'm on the other coast, where a different catastrophic weather event, Hurricane Sandy, exacted an even larger toll. So I've seen up close how hard it is for a community to recover.   If my tenants were impacted by a weather event, I would offer to waive the $1000 rent for February and bump March thru December to $1100.

Will the tenants understand when the landlords want to increase the rent mid-lease, because rising insurance premiums (attributed to storm-related damage) leave the landlords' financial expectations for the property unmet? I doubt it. Let's have some respect for contracts, or prepare to suffer anarchy.

robartsd

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Re: letter to Mayor: demand landlords forgive February's Rent!
« Reply #57 on: January 28, 2017, 12:48:34 AM »
Back on topic:  I don't disagree with the spirit of the letter.  Maybe February's rent should be 0, with the loss recouped  over the remaining 10 months of the year.  Evictions hurt landlords, too.  They aren't quick, they clog up courts and then they leave the landlord with vacancies. 
I'm on the other coast, where a different catastrophic weather event, Hurricane Sandy, exacted an even larger toll. So I've seen up close how hard it is for a community to recover.   If my tenants were impacted by a weather event, I would offer to waive the $1000 rent for February and bump March thru December to $1100.
I could easily see letting a good tenant who contacted me before rent was due about having trouble making ends meet for this reason delay rent as you describe without a late payment penalty.

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: letter to Mayor: demand landlords forgive February's Rent!
« Reply #58 on: January 28, 2017, 11:46:53 AM »
Back on topic:  I don't disagree with the spirit of the letter.  Maybe February's rent should be 0, with the loss recouped  over the remaining 10 months of the year.  Evictions hurt landlords, too.  They aren't quick, they clog up courts and then they leave the landlord with vacancies. 
I'm on the other coast, where a different catastrophic weather event, Hurricane Sandy, exacted an even larger toll. So I've seen up close how hard it is for a community to recover.   If my tenants were impacted by a weather event, I would offer to waive the $1000 rent for February and bump March thru December to $1100.
I could easily see letting a good tenant who contacted me before rent was due about having trouble making ends meet for this reason delay rent as you describe without a late payment penalty.

Indeed. Good tenants are hard to find, and are worth making a sacrifice.

Undecided

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Re: letter to Mayor: demand landlords forgive February's Rent!
« Reply #59 on: January 28, 2017, 07:46:28 PM »
Back on topic:  I don't disagree with the spirit of the letter.  Maybe February's rent should be 0, with the loss recouped  over the remaining 10 months of the year.  Evictions hurt landlords, too.  They aren't quick, they clog up courts and then they leave the landlord with vacancies. 
I'm on the other coast, where a different catastrophic weather event, Hurricane Sandy, exacted an even larger toll. So I've seen up close how hard it is for a community to recover.   If my tenants were impacted by a weather event, I would offer to waive the $1000 rent for February and bump March thru December to $1100.
I could easily see letting a good tenant who contacted me before rent was due about having trouble making ends meet for this reason delay rent as you describe without a late payment penalty.

Indeed. Good tenants are hard to find, and are worth making a sacrifice.

I've been a landlord for over a decade. I was a renter in apartments (in NY) and single family homes (in California) for many years, too. I just want my tenants to honor the terms of their leases. I've never had any that went beyond that; I'm not sure what a "good tenant" means to you, but in my experience, a tenant who can't timely pay a month's rent because of a short-term setback isn't a good tenant---might be a good person, but someone who's not good for a relatively short-term promise doesn't seem like a good tenant to me. Is all it takes to be a "good tenant" to not trash the place?

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: letter to Mayor: demand landlords forgive February's Rent!
« Reply #60 on: January 28, 2017, 09:35:28 PM »
Back on topic:  I don't disagree with the spirit of the letter.  Maybe February's rent should be 0, with the loss recouped  over the remaining 10 months of the year.  Evictions hurt landlords, too.  They aren't quick, they clog up courts and then they leave the landlord with vacancies. 
I'm on the other coast, where a different catastrophic weather event, Hurricane Sandy, exacted an even larger toll. So I've seen up close how hard it is for a community to recover.   If my tenants were impacted by a weather event, I would offer to waive the $1000 rent for February and bump March thru December to $1100.
I could easily see letting a good tenant who contacted me before rent was due about having trouble making ends meet for this reason delay rent as you describe without a late payment penalty.

Indeed. Good tenants are hard to find, and are worth making a sacrifice.

I've been a landlord for over a decade. I was a renter in apartments (in NY) and single family homes (in California) for many years, too. I just want my tenants to honor the terms of their leases. I've never had any that went beyond that; I'm not sure what a "good tenant" means to you, but in my experience, a tenant who can't timely pay a month's rent because of a short-term setback isn't a good tenant---might be a good person, but someone who's not good for a relatively short-term promise doesn't seem like a good tenant to me. Is all it takes to be a "good tenant" to not trash the place?

I'm talking about a tenant who improves the place.

I've rented out single rooms, a single family house, a condominium, and individual apartments in New Mexico. This was mostly between 2000 and 2014. During this time I have had the honor of doing business with some outstanding tenants.

Twice I've had a tenant paint the apartment or condo interior if I provided the materials. It's not that the paint was in bad shape, they just wanted a different color scheme. Both of them did a phenomenal job. Another tenant re-landscaped part of the yard at her expense. I'm not talking about bartered labor in lieu of rent, mind you: I'm talking about making permanent improvements to the place in a way that benefited me financially and increased the value of the building by hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

This kind of behavior is rare, and I can count the tenants like this on one hand and have fingers left over. But hopefully soon you will cross paths with someone like this, and your life will be enriched for it.

Undecided

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Re: letter to Mayor: demand landlords forgive February's Rent!
« Reply #61 on: January 28, 2017, 10:52:18 PM »
Back on topic:  I don't disagree with the spirit of the letter.  Maybe February's rent should be 0, with the loss recouped  over the remaining 10 months of the year.  Evictions hurt landlords, too.  They aren't quick, they clog up courts and then they leave the landlord with vacancies. 
I'm on the other coast, where a different catastrophic weather event, Hurricane Sandy, exacted an even larger toll. So I've seen up close how hard it is for a community to recover.   If my tenants were impacted by a weather event, I would offer to waive the $1000 rent for February and bump March thru December to $1100.
I could easily see letting a good tenant who contacted me before rent was due about having trouble making ends meet for this reason delay rent as you describe without a late payment penalty.

Indeed. Good tenants are hard to find, and are worth making a sacrifice.

I've been a landlord for over a decade. I was a renter in apartments (in NY) and single family homes (in California) for many years, too. I just want my tenants to honor the terms of their leases. I've never had any that went beyond that; I'm not sure what a "good tenant" means to you, but in my experience, a tenant who can't timely pay a month's rent because of a short-term setback isn't a good tenant---might be a good person, but someone who's not good for a relatively short-term promise doesn't seem like a good tenant to me. Is all it takes to be a "good tenant" to not trash the place?

I'm talking about a tenant who improves the place.

I've rented out single rooms, a single family house, a condominium, and individual apartments in New Mexico. This was mostly between 2000 and 2014. During this time I have had the honor of doing business with some outstanding tenants.

Twice I've had a tenant paint the apartment or condo interior if I provided the materials. It's not that the paint was in bad shape, they just wanted a different color scheme. Both of them did a phenomenal job. Another tenant re-landscaped part of the yard at her expense. I'm not talking about bartered labor in lieu of rent, mind you: I'm talking about making permanent improvements to the place in a way that benefited me financially and increased the value of the building by hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

This kind of behavior is rare, and I can count the tenants like this on one hand and have fingers left over. But hopefully soon you will cross paths with someone like this, and your life will be enriched for it.

I landscaped the yard of a rented house I lived in for a few years. The places I own have appropriate landscaping already, and I don't consider paint color changes to be improvements, since I already keep my places in good condition (although I don't object if a tenant wants to paint his or her place a reasonable color, as long as they do a good job), although mostly I have tenants for their last two years of college, or a masters program, and even that is a rare request. If rentals are in character for the area and in regularly maintained, I'd expect tenant changes to be personal preference items, rather than improvements. Maybe one will want to install a dry sauna someday, though.

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: letter to Mayor: demand landlords forgive February's Rent!
« Reply #62 on: January 29, 2017, 12:59:06 AM »
Back on topic:  I don't disagree with the spirit of the letter.  Maybe February's rent should be 0, with the loss recouped  over the remaining 10 months of the year.  Evictions hurt landlords, too.  They aren't quick, they clog up courts and then they leave the landlord with vacancies. 
I'm on the other coast, where a different catastrophic weather event, Hurricane Sandy, exacted an even larger toll. So I've seen up close how hard it is for a community to recover.   If my tenants were impacted by a weather event, I would offer to waive the $1000 rent for February and bump March thru December to $1100.
I could easily see letting a good tenant who contacted me before rent was due about having trouble making ends meet for this reason delay rent as you describe without a late payment penalty.

Indeed. Good tenants are hard to find, and are worth making a sacrifice.

I've been a landlord for over a decade. I was a renter in apartments (in NY) and single family homes (in California) for many years, too. I just want my tenants to honor the terms of their leases. I've never had any that went beyond that; I'm not sure what a "good tenant" means to you, but in my experience, a tenant who can't timely pay a month's rent because of a short-term setback isn't a good tenant---might be a good person, but someone who's not good for a relatively short-term promise doesn't seem like a good tenant to me. Is all it takes to be a "good tenant" to not trash the place?

I'm talking about a tenant who improves the place.

I've rented out single rooms, a single family house, a condominium, and individual apartments in New Mexico. This was mostly between 2000 and 2014. During this time I have had the honor of doing business with some outstanding tenants.

Twice I've had a tenant paint the apartment or condo interior if I provided the materials. It's not that the paint was in bad shape, they just wanted a different color scheme. Both of them did a phenomenal job. Another tenant re-landscaped part of the yard at her expense. I'm not talking about bartered labor in lieu of rent, mind you: I'm talking about making permanent improvements to the place in a way that benefited me financially and increased the value of the building by hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

This kind of behavior is rare, and I can count the tenants like this on one hand and have fingers left over. But hopefully soon you will cross paths with someone like this, and your life will be enriched for it.

I landscaped the yard of a rented house I lived in for a few years. The places I own have appropriate landscaping already, and I don't consider paint color changes to be improvements, since I already keep my places in good condition (although I don't object if a tenant wants to paint his or her place a reasonable color, as long as they do a good job), although mostly I have tenants for their last two years of college, or a masters program, and even that is a rare request. If rentals are in character for the area and in regularly maintained, I'd expect tenant changes to be personal preference items, rather than improvements. Maybe one will want to install a dry sauna someday, though.

Got it: we rent to different demographics. The tenants I've had in my apartments generally stay much longer than that. If I had to wait until the units turn over to get in there and paint or perform minor repairs, the place would deteriorate and it would actually cost me more to do things like drywall repair especially in bathrooms. Also, I find that if I wait to repaint until walls really "need" it, there's generally more damage than I realize especially if the tenant takes up smoking. I regard regular coats of paint in rental properties as a form of preventive maintenance.

Another nice addition one of my tenants provided was handicap-friendly handles and equipment in the bathroom. The improvements were permanent and they allowed me to advertise to the mobility-impaired market. That turned out to be a gold mine, because there aren't enough cane-friendly apartments to go around. I wound up being able to get more rent for the same property, and a vacancy was almost unheard-of.

With This Herring

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Re: letter to Mayor: demand landlords forgive February's Rent!
« Reply #63 on: January 30, 2017, 10:30:16 AM »
It's interesting to hear more landlords' perspectives on what makes a "good" tenant.  We've been in this apartment for five years, and the landlord always mentions how happy he is to have us as tenants. 

We haven't improved the place, but we do take care of little things ourselves and tell him when a repair that we can't/shouldn't do isn't important to us.  For example, the kitchen tap drips cold water.  Fixing it would require replacing the faucet setup entirely.  We told him the problem exists but, as water is part of rent, we don't care when it gets fixed, if ever.  So, he will probably wait until he needs to cut off water to the house (including his family and another rental unit) for other reasons and do the fix then.

We don't fuss when his kids are learning to play the violin and the saxophone downstairs.  :)

Maybe it is just that we are better in comparison to the terrible tenants.  He recently had to evict a tenant who hadn't paid rent for five months.  When she left, he discovered that in the no-pets apartment she had been keeping two cats with no litterbox.  Now he is stuck replacing carpet that should have lasted a few years more, doing extensive cleaning, and calling authorities about the poor cats and the ex-tenant's children who had to live in that situation.  He won't be getting any back rent, as she quit her job and is now on disability.

robartsd

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Re: letter to Mayor: demand landlords forgive February's Rent!
« Reply #64 on: January 30, 2017, 10:52:31 AM »
A bad tenant exhibits any of the following behaviors:
  • Fails to pay on time
  • Damages property
  • Behaves in a way that causes neighbors to complain to landlord or law enforcement
Bad tenants risk landlord's profits.

In addition to not being a bad tenant, a good tenant:
  • Informs the landlord of maintenance issues even if the tenant is not directly impacted by the issue
  • Is reasonably tolerant of neighbor behavior
  • Keeps the property clean and easy to maintain
Good tenants reduce landlord's cost/risk.

Good tenants may also improve property (with permission).

MgoSam

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Re: letter to Mayor: demand landlords forgive February's Rent!
« Reply #65 on: February 01, 2017, 10:09:47 AM »
Absolutely agree robartsd,

In my house I have a tenant that's amazing, I feel lucky to have him as a first-time landlord. He's very neat, pays on time, and is largely quiet. He's fixed little things up around the house and told me about it later (like sensor on garage), or if it's a bigger project he'll let me know about it as soon as he sees it rather (rather than ignore it).