Covid Crisis – Rent Payments

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With the current furlough scheme looking to be coming to an end on the 31st October 2020 and increasing financial uncertainty and the likelihood of higher levels of unemployment on the horizon, naturally landlords are concerned as to what will happen should tenants, through no fault of their own, end up in a position where they can no longer afford to pay their rent.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has introduced a replacement Job Support Scheme, but by his own admission this is not going to mean that everybody’s employment is safe.

So far it has not been as bad as you may think, a recent survey commissioned by the NRLA (National Residential Landlord Association)  has found that 90% of tenants surveyed have managed to pay their rent as usual during the coronavirus crisis and that three quarters of those who have had to ask for support from their landlord or agent have had a positive response.

At Hazells, we have certainly found that this seems to be the case, whilst we have a few isolated cases, in the main rents are still being received in full and on time, and where there have been issues we are finding that landlords are quite rightly sympathetic and able to allow rent reductions and payment plans in order to assist tenants when necessary.

As to the future, we have always felt that good solid referencing at the beginning of a tenancy is key to ensuring that we do not have issues with arrears further down the line, and this remains even truer today. Rather than racing to try to find a tenant as quickly as possible it is vitally important to find the right tenant, to prevent any issues in the future. It is this mentality that has enabled us to keep our percentage of tenancies in rental arears to a very low number indeed, especially when compared to the national average, even in such difficult times as we are experiencing now.

If you are a landlord or tenant and have any concerns regarding rental payments please do not hesitate to contact either Chris or Andrew to discuss further on 01284 702 626, equally if you would like to find out more about our referencing process we would be happy to discuss this also.

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