Among those that are hoping the state can provide better protections in the future for landlords is Lisa Damiani, the Executive Director of the WNY Property Owners Coalition, a group that was formed just weeks before the pandemic hit. They advocate on behalf of landlords.
“Adversarial relationships are not really helpful,” Damiani told WBEN. “The property owners need people to live in their buildings and the people in their buildings need a place to live, so it’s a very important relationship.”
Money that is owed by tenants who did not pay rent will be due once the moratorium ends in late August. However, the circumstances in which a landlord collects that money, be it one large payment in August, or small incremental payments over several months, will ultimately be made in an agreement between the landlord and the tenant.
“The rent is still due and needs to be paid,” she said. “Right now, the governor’s actions has put a hold on what the landlords and property owners can do to get that rent. The rent will still be owed and that’s going to be a problem. It’s going to be compounding.”
Damiani believes that the governor extended the moratorium because of the chance of federal funds came come in to help tenants financially, much like the $1,200 that most Americans received last month.
Regardless, Damiani urges tenants and landlords to communicate with each other and get a clear picture of the financial situation.
BUFFALO LANDLORD STEPS UP
Fortunately, his residents were all still employed and Walton said that they paid the May rent as normal.
Still, Walton can empathize with other landlords who are struggling to pay the mortgage on a property.
“Even if the mortgage payment is deferred, they’re going to have to pay a lump sum,” he said. “Some of the time, landlords (rely on renters) full time and rely on the payments to feed their kids, pay their bills, property taxes, all of those things aren’t changing.”
Walton said tenants who are going out of their way to not pay rent risk impacting everybody who is a renter under one property manager. Even if you are evicted at the end of August, delinquent tenants could still end up paying back the rent and additional fees if litigation is involved.