All Forum Posts by: Susan Maneck

 Yep, basically that is what it means. It means they have released the funds but not necessarily deposited them. 

@Cat Jones

That is what mine is doing. The deposited one cent and are still saying denied. But since I've gotten two earlier payments from them it couldn't be because they couldn't verify the property. It is the recertification that apparently got denied. 

No, RAMP does an excellent job of not telling anyone tenant or landlord anything! 

@Nicholas Jackson

If a tenant tells me they are going to be late I always ask them "how late?" Normally I will wait until that period is up. If they haven't paid me by then, that's when I issue a three day notice. If they say they are going to be two weeks late then I would demand a partial payment up front. I don't want to let them get a month behind because it takes three weeks to get a court case once you file and their deposit only covers a month's rent at most. Tenants who get a month behind in my experience, will never catch up. This was all pre-pandemic. Post-pandemic I have given people more slack if I knew their situation was Covid-related, partially because I knew federal aid was coming and I could afford to be patient. No, I would never consider raising rent by $200 but I've seen apartment complexes do this mostly in the beginning of the third year of occupancy.  Mississippi laws are all landlord friendly and do next to nothing to protect tenants.  In fact I bought my first property in Mississippi when they did that in the apartment complex where I was living in in Ridgeland. I did the math and figured it would be cheaper to buy. Mind you, I stayed about a month and a half after my lease expired because the close kept getting delayed and I paid them the old amount. They took the money and didn't object but I didn't get my deposit back so it came out about even. (I had to leave one room dirty because I had a plane to catch.) To be honest before this year the only time I raised rent on a tenant was when they made me mad by not taking their trampoline down when I said they couldn't have it (insurance reasons.) Because of what happened with property values and rents recently I am raising rents when leases expire now but only by about $25 a month which means they are still well below current market rates, so no one is going to move. A landlord's biggest expense is turnover so normally we want to keep tenants as long as possible. If you have a lease I'm not sure how they could increase what you owe by any amount whatsoever until the lease expires. Or are you saying they are increasing it by that much when the lease ends? In California you have to give 60 days notice to raise the rent but in Mississippi they only need 30 days. Mind you, I only own houses. When it is a multi-unit property or there is a property manager involved things are going to be much stricter and less personal. A property manager isn't going to want to mess with partial payments like I did when I lived in walking distance from most of my tenants. Since I'm now living in California whenever one of my houses goes vacant or I need to do an eviction, the property gets turned over to my property manager. I've actually only got one property left that I'm managing myself and that's the one where I get my rent three months in advance from federal funds. 

Paid in Ramp usually means you'll get your money in two or three weeks. My tenant is on the verge of a nervous breakdown and I feel bad because it isn't their fault. Her husband is a Covid long-hauler who hasn't been able to work for more than a year but I've paid more in property taxes on their house this year than they've been able to pay in rent and I just can't hold out any longer. 

I think it is called Hinds County Rental Assistance. Here is the portal: 

https://hindsrentalaid.com/

Right now, it is up to the landlord although there were times during the pandemic when we were not allowed to evict providing they could certify that their problems paying the rent was due to the pandemic. Right now I am forced to evict my tenants who were getting RAMP money because they are now five months behind. If you can apply through a different program do so. I have another tenant who is paying through an entirely different program and they pay me 3 months in advance! 

Before the pandemic if tenants were going to be late in their rent I wanted to hear that from them before the rent was due not afterwards. Otherwise, they would have a late fee for sure. 

Try a local bank there like Trustmark or Bank Plus.  What you need is a bank which is willing to keep the loan in-house instead of selling it to Fannie-Mae or Freddie-Mac. A local bank that knows the area is more likely to do this. 

When I went to the Ramp website earlier this week and it said my tenants' application was denied. This after they were five months behind in rent! But then a penny was deposited to my checking account. I can't imagine why they would have done this unless they were planning to make a bigger deposit.