Sample Covid-19 Letter

Dear Clients,

The evolving COVID-19 pandemic has put us all in unchartered territory, these are unusual times. The challenges we are facing are great. Businesses are closing doors, workers are being let go, schools are being cancelled leaving students in limbo and wanting to cancel their leases and return to their homes. The current situation is creating a tremendous burden on everyone, and landlords are wondering, will I get my rent payments this month?

As you know, from the very beginning of this crisis we have been proactive and have acted sooner than most to implement a number of safety precautions and significant adjustments in how we are conducting business. The safety of our employees, tenants, and customers has always been, and continues to be a top priority.

There are lot of unknowns, fear, and panic right now, which has spurred some housing advocates to seek to impose severe restrictions on landlords, like imposing State-wide indefinite moratoriums on rent payments and other irrational and dangerous measure that could cripple landlords.

While we fully sympathize and understand the concerns, and we recognize that sacrifices will have to be made by everyone, we seek to maintain a more rational and measured approach to these issues. We have confidence that the housing industry should be the ones to work together to find appropriate solutions that can work for everyone. To this end, our Local and National Apartment Associations, along with other industry associations and many landlords and property management companies, have been working tirelessly to find solutions for our landlords and real estate businesses, to counteract the many emotional and wrongheaded policies being pushed by others.

The Utah Apartment Association, with collaboration from our attorneys, just released the following Press Release which states our position.

“Today, the Utah Apartment Association (UAA) in conjunction with most of the major residential rental property management companies in Utah announces a plan for tenants to cope with the economic impacts of this health crisis throughout the state of Utah. The Utah Apartment Association commends state and local leaders in their efforts to address the COVID-19 health emergency. These health efforts, though, lead to reductions in working hours, wages and create other financial hardships. These financial hardships have a brutal and immediate impact on many of our tenant clients that rely on regular wages to meet their financial obligations including rent, utilities, food and transportation needs.

 In addition to the immediate, financial concerns of tenants; the housing industry must also balance its commitments and duties to lenders, employees, maintenance staff and maintaining affordable housing in professional, comfortable conditions. 

 In an effort to address the concerns of tenants that are in financial need as a result of the health crisis while still meeting the commitments of the industry, the UAA and partners as listed below are promoting a rent deferment plan for the month of April 2020. A tenant must qualify for rent deferment by demonstrating their financial status has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. A tenant may demonstrate financial impact by indicating exposure to the virus; quarantine requirements; or loss of hours or wages as a result of health recommendations related to the pandemic. Upon demonstrating qualifying criteria, landlords and management companies will provide plans to defer April’s rent payment. Such deferments may allow April rent to be paid at a later date or to be made in payments over the course of several months. The industry also intends to stay eviction proceedings for tenants that qualify as described above.

 We are confident that Utah is resilient and will overcome the temporary effects of this pandemic. We will continue to monitor and assess the housing situation in Utah and support further measures if needed. We again thank our government leaders for their tireless efforts in this unprecedented time.”

I encourage all of our clients to support these measures because we need to be seen as providing real solutions during this difficult time, and because the alternatives could be much much worse. I praise those of you who have already reached out willingly, and offered some sort of relief to the tenants in your properties, your kindness and understanding is admirable, however I recommend that we begin with the policy stated herein first and see how things evolve from there.

I have included with this letter a copy of our April Rent Deferral Policy/Criteria, and the Deferral Agreement that tenants will need to agree to and sign. I also expect we will see a number of mortgage deferral programs being made available to landlords, so stay patient and look for information coming from your lenders. I would also expect that late payment marks on credit scores in Spring 2020 won’t mean much in the long term, and I wouldn’t be surprised if credit agencies do not report them, but that still remains to be seen.

There are new challenges, some new change happening every day, things continue to evolve quickly. Please know that we are continuing to monitor the situation and are actively involved in finding solutions. We are committed to finding the right balance and are always looking out for your best interests.

Thank you for your support, patience, and understanding during this challenging time. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your Owner Support Specialist. Or you can reach out to me directly.

Sincerely,

Peter Harradine

President

Harman Property Management Group