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I realise its a bit early but when you have more information can you enlighten me/your audience re the rules and processes you suggest around this to ensure only genuine Covid19 impacted people are part of the moratorium? Perhaps there is a site with the information?
The PM’s announcement does not seem to give direction re this?
I have not had good experiences with tenants re trustworthiness and am wary as my tenants are new and I do not know a lot about their behaviours. But I do wish to help them if they are honestly impacted.
The tenants should still be employed given their occupations. They have requested an important favour which I have agreed to. I have not had any other requests at this stage.
I asked my agent, before this became news, what she is planning if they can’t pay. She only had the standard process for non payment (2 letters then terminate). I asked her to liaise with me if this happens before she follows this process as I don’t want to cause more distress to genuinely impacted people.. I am happy to negotiate something with the tenants – not sure what yet. I had planned to only negotiate if they honestly have lost their jobs and can prove this – not sure how.
I am retired and depend on the rental income. Mortgage help from a bank will not help me as I do not have a mortgage on the property.
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I understand that the government has said that any evictions due to covid19 will not be allowed.
Jumping ahead a little here, if you did evict them, them it’s up to you yo prove they were not affected by covid 19. I dont think the courts will be sympathetic with the landlord under any circumstances.
In any case, in NSW, all local court nonessential business is on hold till about September. You can’t evict a tenant without a court order, so your tenants will sit there till the court can schedule a hearing. That could be months away(even into next year).
The loss of income is going to affect all of us. The government has said as much.
It’s up to the landlord as to how to treat each tenant. This is uncharted territory.
In my humble opinion, work out some arrangement with your tenant, even if it’s to receive a token rent payment.
Tenants To me sometimes are smarter than the landlords and hence are able to exploit them. Be seen as compromising and they may respect you for it.
I understand there will be a process whereby tenants will have to prove to their agents or, if there is no agent, to Fair Trading in NSW or Consumer Affairs in Victoria, they they are earning less than 75 percent of what they were previously. Similar arrangements will apply in other states.
One complication is that a lot of landlord insurance policies insist that you can’t claim for loss of income unless you have sent an eviction notice. For some reason, you can and must still do that in NSW, even though you know the tenant can’t and won’t be evicted.
However, I hear the system is different in Victoria where you have to apply to VCAT first to get an eviction notice and they won’t issue them.
Or something like that. I’m waiting to hear more details.
In any case, things are neither as dire nor as disorganised as they seem. There will be processes and the tenants still owe the rent. This is not a rent holiday but it means renters can go into arrears without losing their home – provided they can prove they are genuine cases (which was the point of the original post).
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
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