The Coronavirus and our Tenants
There are a myriad of posts right now on this topic. Here is how we have decided to handle the situation with Tenants who cannot work and pay their rent and our properties.
This month we are good, but according to the CDC estimates that this virus will rapidly escalate over the next few weeks and possibly peak in 45 days. I think that puts everyone into at least a 2-4 month employment impact situation. To be able to deal with this impending impact, we are going to have the tenants forfeit their security deposits and we will work with them to repay their security deposit. Like many on BP we have financed our properties and rely on the rents to make the notes.
That leaves us in a position of having to evict if we cannot get rents. At that point, the lack of foresight and savings by the tenants has become my problem. I won't reward that mentality with a free place to live. Many might call this draconian but I believe that living in my properties requires the tenants to pay their rents. My mortgage lender will not let me go without paying for my properties or my personal residence.
That raises another problem: the Courts in my state are shut until April 1, and while that may not affect me in the near future it certainly will if this goes into May or June. I believe that the Courts will reopen by then and if not, there will be telephonic hearings to keep the dockets moving.
We are also not performing any non-emergency repairs during this period. We are holding onto our cash. While we are not in a bunker mentality we are certainly watching all costs, expenses and rents. This is what we are doing, this may not be what y'all do, but I wanted to share how we are preparing to deal with this historic issue without losing our properties.
This is how we are dealing with this, I look forward to hearing how everyone else is dealing with this matter.
Good Luck and stay safe.