Struggling to pay your rent?
If you’re struggling to pay your rent as a result of circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, the good news is that there’s already a lot of help out there already which, if you’re eligible for, will hopefully give you the helping hand you need to not only pay your rent, but your other bills too. While it may seem like a good idea to approach your landlord or agent about a rent reduction of deferment, from our experience landlords are going to want clear evidence that you have exhausted your own options for financial help and welfare before you come to them asking for options on what they can do to help you.
What support is available to you?
The Government have been extremely generous when supporting affected individuals (whether working or not) and so landlords will want to see that affected tenants are accessing all avenues of help and welfare that they are entitled to first. You must remember that the idea behind the Government’s financial help is to ensure that people still have enough money to continue paying their bills – including their rental payments.
With many employees being put on furlough on 80% of their salary and with general daily expenses at an all time low - with normal expenditure like fuel, restaurants, nights out and holidays currently on hold - landlords will rightly expect for rent to continue to be paid as normal in this situation.
For those who have lost their job, their priority should be to be on the lookout for alternative work. There are a range of supermarkets, distribution centres, hospitals and care providers who are recruiting during this time.
However, for those who are without work or on low income due to COVID-19, they should be able to get help with living costs through Universal Credit. While there is usually a 5 week wait for payment, this timescale has been heavily reduced given the current climate. Local Housing Allowance has been increased as well, so for anyone currently claiming LHA through Universal Credit or for those who are existing Housing Benefit claimants, make sure that you enquire about this increase.
There is also Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) for those who are self-isolating (which runs from Day 1 of sickness instead of Day 4) as well as Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) for anyone with a disability or health condition that affects how much you can work – so we encourage you to assess your options with these avenues too.
If all of the above have been looked into and you still feel that you’re going to struggle to pay your rent, your landlord may then ask for you to provide evidence of your financial struggles that they can take to their mortgage lender. Read more on this here.
What proof will I need to provide?
In order to ensure that mortgage lenders can see that a landlord has a real case of tenant hardship, tenants are going to have to be able to provide clear documentation to prove their case. Depending on your personal situation, documents that you might be asked to provide are:
· An isolation note.
· Comparable wage slips showing a reduction in income.
· Bank statements for comparison showing the reduction in income.
· Letter from their employer showing reduced hours/termination of employment.
· Letter from their accountant confirming a reduction of income.
· Copy of any benefits claim.
Once it’s clear to the landlord and the lender that a tenant needs help, a mortgage payment holiday might be able to be arranged. However, similar to the landlord’s own situation where the ‘holiday’ payments have to be paid back later (with interest in their case), most landlords will expect tenants to agree to a payment plan where the missed rental payments are paid back later as well. It’s also highly likely that you’ll need to sign a contract outlining what your repayment plan is for the missed rent.
If you do need help, we’ll do our very best…
So, as you can see, there’s quite a lot that goes into a landlord being able to offer rent relief and what’s more it comes with sacrifice on the landlord’s behalf. So it is only fair that landlords ask for clear evidence if their tenant(s) claims to be struggling with hardship during these times.
However, what is clear from all of our conversations with our landlords so far is that every landlord appreciates that there are tenants out there who will be legitimately struggling right now. And if it’s clear and evidenced that a tenant needs help, we’ll do what we can to help them get through it.
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