I suspect she has decided that her internet provider has taken things too far by demanding outrageous payments for a service provided and is now self isolating offline in the face of this crazy idea that she has to pay for things.
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Hey all, Alexandraâs view may not be your own, but it will be the view of many people. Most of the comments here are fair questions, but letâs keep the Community a place where everyone feels like they can share their opinion. We donât want to turn into a place that scares different opinions away!
Sam
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I think you must live in Utopia, or you are unbelievably nieve.
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We own our property outright but pay maintenance charges to an association each month. The reng we receive is part of our pension. We want to use the Pause Rent facility for chasing the tenant but would like the original reminder sent out is that possible. If we decide to allow the tenant to pay less rent for a while can this be picked up from their deposit at the end of the tenancy.
UPDATE - ALL SORTED: We contacted the tenants this morning and requested a rent payment of ÂŁ250 per month for the next 3 months and that we would not be requiring them to pay back the balance (we reasoned that either the partner would be back in work or claiming benefits and so things would be moving forward one way or another).
All parties are happy with this outcome: they get reduced rent and I will be getting the insurance and boiler service covered in the first instance and I am not paying Council Tax on an empty property xxx
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Have you issued any new tenancy paperwork to set out the changes and ensure the reduced payment does not turn into custom and practice ? If so, would you mind sharing it ?
Alexandra - my mum owns a property outright, but the income that she receives pays her care home fees. If she doesnât get her rent, she canât pay her care home fees. She is in her 80s with dementia and has always been brought up to pay her own way - it would stress her to hell not to be able to pay her fees. Many landlords rely on the rental income to live off, not just to pay mortgages. So, are you saying that her care home should then take the hit, which in turn means that they cannot pay their staff, which in turn means that someone else cannot pay their rent, and so the knock on effect!
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you notice we have still not heard from her, alexandra 4, she is either ill, been evicted, had a twinge of remorse, fighting to get her rent back, or become a landlady, we must be patient
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No, we formally set out the suggested course of action in an email and they replied formally accepting the terms.
The working tenant and both of us are Keyworkers, so popping round for signatures on amended Contracts was never going to happen - in fact we wished ourselves Happy Isolation and Social Distancing.
What Iâm unclear about is why a tenant in this situation canât apply for LHA? I know that wonât pay the full rent, but surely if a tenant says Iâve lost my job so I canât pay the rent, you tell them to apply for HLA and negotiate an appropriate (hopefully temporary) reduction. At least thatâs my plan for when it happens. Am I being naive?
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**yes! This would be the norm. Iâm unemployed due to disability causes in workplace and this is my only income. I claim no benefits at all. This is my income. If my tenants stop paying, I will have to seek unemployment & LHA so why shouldnât they ? **
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Can loss of income be claimed under insurance? I bought special landlords insurance for loss of rental income through Open Rent.
Okay so landlords can only claim: âOnce the tenant has not paid rent for 30 days and the relevant section 21 or section 8 notice has been issued, then you can claim.â So paying for this insurance was meaningless. The government bans evictions so we can not make a claim. What happens when the ban is lifted? And Iâm owed 4 months rent?
I guess you can issue the notice to satisfy the insurance, but you wonât be able to enforce it.
This Ban on evictions hasnât come into law yet. And of course I donât even want to evict any tenants but I do want to be covered for my loss if rent which I paid for in my tenthsurd insurance!
Just to be clear on exactly how the banks are going to effect a âmortgage payment holidayâ. They will be adding the unpaid interest/capital to the total outstanding on your mortgage and extending the term. This not a free ride just deferment of payment. Hence I see it is is completely fair/appropriate/reasonable to offer a deferment of rental payment to a tenant by either giving them a reduced monthly rental or an agreement to defer payment to a later date and make up any deficit. It is not fair for a tenant to ask to pay no rent at all unless there are genuine (provable?) extenuating circumstances .The issue is the practicality of negotiating, documenting and then collecting rent under any new arrangement. I am a landlord and I own my property outright. My tenant is self isolating and I will work with him as far is as reasonably practical and affordable. I might not have mortgage payments to make but I absolutely do require the income to cover other expenses that are none of your or a tenantâs business. There are no free rides for anyone on either side of a tenancy agreement.
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Hi Amy, weâve been in close contact with Rentguard, who provide our Rent Gaurantee Insurance, and they have said theyâd love any OpenRent landlords with questions to contact them directly.
If you havenât already, you can reach them on 01227 467 250.
I was wondering if it would come to that. Iâm hoping I will be able to work something out with tenants before it gets to that, but itâs an interesting point. So can I even issue one if theyâve been banned by government?
Honestly donât know. The law should be passed today so weâll see, but I thought you could issue them but with no way to enforce. If you canât issue them, the the insurers cannot insist you do. Everyone is making it up as we go along, so weâll just have to see what gives.
Dear Sam from Openrent.
I do appreciate your will of moderating this discussion.
However as landlords we have the duty to argue if necessary robustly (but still politely) against misguided opinions about our work, our life and behavior.
As you said everybody is entitled their opinions but when those are based on twisted visions of reality and business while disguise under a claim of humanitarian beliefs, itâs our duty to push back.
Nobody should use the terrible current situation to declare âopen seasonâ on landlords because of this urban myth that we are all landlords millionaires living on private islands somewhere way warmer than here.
Some of us are having just one property, other run business but we all deserve respect and the opportunity to put our point across even if sometimes it can be robust⌠as robust as been wrongly painted as the usual âbad and immoral landlordâ
In short I do understand that openrent is keen on creating a platform where tenants and landlords can speak alike but it has to be based on mutual respect. It canât be just one way.
Best regards,
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