We filed an eviction in Indiana a few weeks ago. Our court date was yesterday. On Friday we filed a motion to appear telophonically, due to travel and social distancing restrictions, the court said we must appear in person and rescheduled our eviction to JULY
I’m now hearing legislation is inflight to stop all evictions and foreclosures as a response to the pandemic.
I’m good with putting everything on pause, as long as it’s the entire debt chain but…
Anyone else seeing similar? Any advice?
Many courts have closed for hearings until May 1 in many parts of the country. This will cause reschedules and back logs. My expectation is that many tenants will have rent paying problems in the next 45 days. I’d further expect federal assistance for many with rent issues. I’ve not heard of banks allowing payments to be skipped or added to the back of loans, but that is also a real probability.
I’ve posted about this in the other pandemic threads. I don’t think there is a good solution. If we can’t enforce evictions, once word gets out, some residents won’t pay because they can’t, while some won’t pay because they chose not to.
The hail mary strategy I’m experimenting with is rolling out a ‘rent forbearance’ application to residents, asking them to apply for rent forbearance if they are having income difficulties. Once the eviction restrictions ultimately get waived, preferential treatment will be given to those who applied for relief, versus those who gave us the middle finger and just disappeared on rent day. Those who applied and demonstrated financial need will get all late fees waived and generous repayment plans (and possibly partial forgiveness) once things go back to normal. Everyone else who didn’t pay and didn’t apply will get hit with all late fees and get less generous repayment plans.
I really think it’s best to wait the next few days on what the economic package looks like thats going to roll out. It sounds like from today’s White House speech it would be money getting its way to people and see how much and to whom. I think you will have to work with people now but this could really be helpful to those whose economic cord was just pulled
I’m aware of the expected federal assistance, aware of the possibility of a moratorium on evictions and basically, all we can do is wait and hope as the bureaucrats dole out the aid to renters and homeowners that they do it fairly for everyone in the chain, cause I got bills too…
I would be extremely proactive. Even if you dont see any issues today, reach out to your lenders, touch base with them, tell them your plans, your intentions, risks that might be in the pipeline. They hinted as support for small biz maybe in the form of credit or loans . Potentially a resource that might be available to park owners. I think on Wed 3/18/20 or by the end of the week there will be something definitive.
And at the end of the day, we are in the affordable housing Busines, the lowest man on the totem pole ( that sounds maybe not as nice as id like it too… but for simplicity will leave it) we can still provide a potential cost savings to many who are out there. Unless you drank the kool aid and went 700 dollar lot rents and 700 dollar home payments then you might be in a different boat. I really think that many good tenants , even if you are in a spot with eviction moratorium will try and make it work because its the right thing to do.
I really think that those within a certain frame will get the support . My prediction today was that those that could show that they have negatively been effected by the pandemic would receive 10k , cash payments. That has substantial effect to carry many people at least a few months.
Lets see what tomorrow brings.
We are considering notifying tenants that we will consider decreasing rent if tenants get a letter from their income source / employer stating that they are experiencing reduced income / hours due to the coronavirus epidemic. If they are looking for rent forgiveness due to illness, we will require a letter from their doctor proving that they have or had the coronavirus, making it so they had to stay home, getting better and quarantined. At the same time, this kind of language could open the door for tenants to take even more advantage of the situation. Thoughts?
Do you think the class of tenant will improve during the recession? To me, it seems that tenants who typically go for apartments may look into more affordable housing and apply to live in mobile homes. This class of tenant would likely have more ability to pay rent in full on time, less possibility for drama, and better communication with landlord and other tenants.
What is happening is unprecedented. I think trying to figure out out how this unravels is like throwing darts at the wall. Pieces of the economy are not slowing down, they are stopping. The magnitude of where its going to show up I think is yet to be seen and how severe. I think with less work . No work people will be hesitant to to do anything. MHC i think still holds a great value proposition for all but this will change day by day. All will be well in the end, doesn’t mean it wont hurt in the mean time.
NY is talking about rent halt but regardless a moratorium on evictions is not the same as do not pay rent.
Talk to your lenders, be proactive , open lines of communication, they are in the same spot as you , and planning for a lot of people who will loan default and depending on the loan/ lender. I’m inclined to think they will be working with you just like i think people need to work with their tenants.
Accommodating residents for a hardship directly related to the coronavirus seems reasonable. You may have to expand on that depending on how bad the fallout is. If we have a mild recession, that should be sufficient. If things get really bad economically, which seems unlikely but entirely possible, lots of residents without direct contact to the virus are still going to be wrecked financially. Once again, I think most actions we take as landlords are hail marys that won’t have a big effect either way, since ultimately we’re just going to be asking for rent, not demanding it since we probably can’t do evictions for a while. I figure if I can’t actually evict anyone anyway, I might as well err on the side of being really nice.
In 
you can’t evict or levy fines from Feb to July.
No past due amounts can be charged.
Courts won’t hear a matter until it goes to a mediation hearing. MH Tenancy Act was just passed here to protect the owners on rental lots.
Sure some people are not working but take a payment plan if you can. Reduced work hours is hitting hard. Our government is trying to help people not working. Very few people have not paid, some single owners are behind & a lady with a very sick husband. Notices are placed on the doors on the 4th. Payment plans are acceptable.
People are not stopping their payments of $1115 on purpose, usually they pay by the second week.
Treat your tenants like people, it’s hard for everyone right now.
1 year follow up.
Well, this has nearly been a non-issue for me in our parks this past year. We had some slow pay, we waved late fees and helped one tenant engage some public aid available for renters.
The biggest issue we faced is an owner walked in December, left his trailer. We attempted to extinguish hsi rights via the courts but couldn’t. We eventually hauled that old trailer to the dump since the title was still in the Parks name and he had no record of paying on the verbal note from the previous owner.
Hopefully in 2021 we will see things improve…