Tenant is in the hospital (sad trombone)

[Jeremy Brown]

So, I'm afraid my nice-guy tendencies may soon conflict with running a proper business again. We haven't collected our first month of rent yet and one of our tenants is in the hospital. He's going to have emergency surgery and may be off work for weeks or even months. He's a self-employed handyman and I am rather concerned he won't be able to make rent for long with no income. Maybe he can cover this month's rent, but I'm guessing he's about to be unemployed and crushed with medical bills. He knows he has a big rent hike coming, so we've briefly discussed an exit strategy (before he got sick). But, he's been there more than 20 years and is a bit of a hoarder, so he has a lot of inertia to redirect. I'd like to come up with a win-win, but it'll be hard to make it look like something other than a greedy landlord kicking out his sick tenant. I'm thinking a sort of cash-for-keys scenario. For example, he pays August rent and rents a storage unit. Then, we pay for a fixed amount of moving labor to get everything he wants into there. If he gets it done by the end of the month, we return his full deposit and we'll take care of whatever junk he doesn't want. He can stay with family while he recovers, and then take care of his stuff in storage. The place already needs a full update, so the only extra cost to us is the movers and a dumpster. Seem like a sensible approach? Any other suggestions that can keep everyone happy and on the right side of the law? He's not late on rent yet, but I want to get a strategy or two lined up before we get there.