COVID-19 Tenant Payment Performance Update through June 2021
We truly hope you appreciate our extra efforts to keep you informed about the COVID impact on tenant rent payment performance. There are a lot of issues outside of our control, but we want to communicate to keep you informed. Please send us any suggestions for what additional information you’d like to see.
Please be sure to share this with anyone you know interested in real estate investing or looking for a better property manager, so they can see what they are missing!
EVICTION MORATORIUM UPDATE
Well, the CDC has spoken and stated their last extension, through July 31, is the last extension!
We only hope political pressure doesn’t lead to them reneging on this.
Please understand that with the backlog of cases filed and waiting to be filed, it will take at least 3-6 months for the courts to get caught up. Fortunately, we’ve been aggressive about filing cases and already have several court dates in August.
We do expect some judges to still look for any excuse to adjourn cases and give tenants more time to obtain CERA funds. We’ll anxiously be waiting to see how judges rule on tenants that have refused all our efforts to get them to apply for CERA and avoid our calls, etc. all of which we’ve documented.
So, don’t get too excited until we see how our August eviction cases go.
GOVERNMENT AID FOR PAST DUE TENANTS
In the month of June, we received several more COVID Emergency Rental Assistance (CERA) checks and obtained even more approvals!
The court-appointed attorneys continue to push tenants to cooperate, although we still have several tenants that won’t.
DETROIT NOTE: Most CERA application caseworkers are only paying 80% of eligible funds if a property doesn’t have its Certificate of Compliance from the city. After months of warning our clients this could happen, many now want us to perform miracles and get their properties inspected and repaired ASAP. Has anyone not heard that there is a labor shortage in the USA? We’re doing our best, but please be reasonable with your expectations😊
RENT PAYMENT TRENDS 30-60-90+ Days Behind – thru June 30, 2021
We eked out a slight improvement in June, but we seem to have leveled out for the most part.
Unfortunately, most tenants 90+ days behind are not cooperating with the CERA process and we don’t think they will until a judge issues an eviction judgment against them. Why won’t they take advantage of the government’s free rent money? Half are probably afraid of filling out the CERA application and disclosing their personal info, the other half want a power trip over their landlord.
Macomb County: Our numbers dipped a bit due to some nonperforming properties we took over in June. Overall, the numbers are fairly steady with most tenants paying their rent in full.
Oakland County: Another small improvement and we were even able to get a few tenants paying zero rent to pay something. Many tenants know the Eviction Moratorium is ending and some are starting to address their balances.
Wayne Countya: No change in the percentage of tenants paying rent in full, but we were able to get some nonpayers to pay something.
FAVOR: If you have a property that has seen an improvement in rent delinquencies, please take a moment to give our Delinquencies & Evictions Department a compliment for all their hard work. They spend their days dealing with a lot of negativity from tenants (and some owners), so a bit of positive appreciation from you would go a long way to make their day!
CASH-FOR-KEYS: If you’d like to explore getting rid of a tenant NOW versus waiting for the end of the Eviction Moratorium, contact us about paying delinquent tenants to move. Yes, it’s frustrating to have to do, but we’ll analyze the business case for you to determine if it makes sense.
For those of you that have contacted us to explore Cash-for-Keys offers to nonpaying tenants, we hope you appreciate our well-thought-out procedure. We have had some outrageous requests from tenants, but our procedure is designed to account for that and protect you legally.
Again, please refer us to others you know interested in real estate investing or that are looking for a better property manager
Image courtesy of Anna Shvets