This Proposed NY Senate Bill Scares Me!

[Christopher Smith]

https://www.nysenate.gov/legis...

The above bill is very concerning to me. I have diligently paid off most of my mortgage debt and now rely solely upon rents from my very modest portfolio of properties. How can it be constitutional to force landlords to *forgive* rents for a period of several months? How is this equitable? Landlords are no different from grocers, gas stations, doctors, clothing stores, etc. We all provide basic human needs. Why would landlords be required to give their product away for free and not grocery stores, gas stations or other providers of essential products? in NYS landlords have already had to deal with the sweeping overhaul of the landlord/tenant laws. Now they want us to forgive rent? Mortgage relief means nothing--the vast majority of my expenses are property taxes, insurance, water, garbage, and maintenance. There is no forgiveness for those expenses!

This is so extraordinarily galling.

[Larry Brown]

I put this in another post but will post it here as well - 

Please write your senator (and assembly person) letting them know the damage this will do to your real estate business.

Below is a letter that I have emailed to my representatives as well as to all of the co-sponsors of the bill (note - I have deleted my numbers in the letter below) -

I am a small-time landlord (total of ___ properties consisting of a total of ___ units) and the majority of the income that I live on comes from my rental properties. I am deeply concerned about Bill #S8125 that suspends/waives rent payments for those tenants who have lost their jobs because of the current COVID-19 crisis. If tenants do not pay their rent how do I pay my bills?

Over the past three years ___% of my gross rents have gone towards expenses associated with my rental properties.

My expenses associated with the rentals include:

• property taxes (__% of gross rents),
• insurance (__% of gross rents),
• repairs (__% of gross rents),
• utilities (__% of gross rents),
• mortgage( __% of gross rents)
• property mgt (__% of gross rents)
• other (__% of gross rents)

After expenses I would be left with __% of gross rents. This is what I would be living on as my major source of income.

Rather than suspending/waiving rents for those tenants impacted by the COVID-19 crisis I recommend that New York state issue rent vouchers to cover the rent payments of those impacted.