Help please - rent 'holiday' - confused

[Lostatsea1988]

Hi everyone

My husband and I are self-employed and work in our industry (music) has all but dried up. This month's rent is paid but I contacted my Landlord to ask if they would consider a rent holiday if we need one in the next few months.

She replied to say that they could only afford this if they applied for (and got) a rent holiday from their mortgage company (fair enough) but that they would be charged around £600 extra in interest (if the holiday was for three months) and that this would need to paid by us or by our guarantor (my husband's dad). She said "I'd encourage you to think whether there are any other options open to you (e.g. a family loan, housing benefit etc) before embarking on this path".

She is a decent landlord and we love the house, but I'm so angry - why should I pay my Landlord's mortgage?!

She sounds perfectly reasonable to me

Me too.

Op how many months rent do you have in savings?

Speak to your local council, you may be able to sign a nil income form to get your rent or a portion paid or claim a discretionary housing payment. You won't be the only people with this problem.

I am a LL and tenant contacted us earlier this evening to say he had a fever and could he have reduced rent this month. I asked if he had Paracetamol and enough food and toilet paper. Then asked if he wanted to pay £400 in April and May instead of £675. Told him not to worry about rent as he can catch it up when he is better. He is a good tenant and been in house for 3 years and we have not increased rent during tenancy. Your LL should be more empathetic. People are dying. Ask if you can catch it up when you are better. Bank will not be charging that much extra interest for a few extra months. I expect they got figure of how much extra if only repaid at end of mortgage.

She sounds reasonable, you don't. If you have savings use them to pay your rent. When they have run out, ask your landlord to reduce the rent. Meanwhile check out your local supermarket for jobs.

We have tenants who we rely on for income, and in these hard times I certainly would'nt see anyone out on the street. If anyone couldn't pay I'd probalby ask for some sort of proof of income and just drop the rent a bit for a month or two. Couldn't go on forever, and it would be at a loss to us, but this is all a chain reaction and so long as I've got a roof over my head and food in my belly I'd probably thing c'est la vie at this current time. I wouldn't want to see anyone out on the street and I certainly wouldn't care about covering all my costs.

If the £600 is at the end of the mortage, say in 20 years time. then paying £600 now would actually be a lot more (probably even more so if quantitative easing to pay for the crisis leads to hyper inflation

So she is actually profiteering

@Lostatsea1988
Wow you seem really kind, perhaps you should read what you have posted.
I would quote then but you seem not to understand mortgages, bills and how things work in the real world.
Good luck OP you will need it.

@CloudsCanLookLikeSheep
No the interest will be added on everyday from the first day of the mortgage payment and then additional interest added on to the payment holiday.

@teenangels - FCA guidelines attached. Getting a 3 month holiday - payment can be spread over remaining life of mortgage, or at end along with interest, by mutual agreement with mortgage lender. No income documentation required. So the landlord could give a 3 month rent holiday now, write off that debt, except for the interest and additional interest incurred. If she rents the property for 3 months longer at the end of her motgage, then she will have earned the same overall. Landlord has years to plan for that amendment to projected income. Or, she could squeeze the tenants now, keep threatening to get the amount from the guarantor, lose the tenants and have the property empty for a while. There has been an exodus Chinese and European renters from London, with a recession I expect there to be more.
I can see there are a few landlords on this thread. It's a risky strategy to squeeze freelancers for the full sum (and more in this case), when they just lost their entire income stream and will need to get minimum salary jobs that won't cover high rents.

Diana = that says by agreement with the lender. Many lenders will not agree so that is not use to some landlords (never mind those without a mortgage who need to the rent to live an continue their work as nurses, doctors etc.

Also depends on job of tenants - if they are care home workers and industrial cleaners they will have more work than usual at present. These ones are musicians but even they could get jobs in supermarkets. Here is one -immediate start Tesco www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=tesco+is+hiring&ibp=htl;jobs&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi1mMO257LoAhUKilwKHc4nANEQp4wCMAB6BAgJEAE#htidocid=K5M_HxL8m-UY5GBTAAAAAA%3D%3D

Xenia you are making up some very strange scenarios now. Fact: London rent prices are high. More than most people on a minimum wage job can afford. A one bedroom house share in my area is £800. That's a house share.
Fact: there are guidelines in place for motgage lenders to give 3 month holiday windows during this extreme time.
Fact: If a landlord takes a punitive stance with 'good' tenants now, they may notice a lack of tenants with a month's rent and deposit, who are ready and willing to rent at pre-recession prices, with less European and Asian students/workers/visitors and less jobs in the capital.

But the landlord isn't taking a punitive stance now. She has very reasonabley suggested Op tries all other avenues first. I would be pissed off if my tenants asked for a rent holiday when they have savings and a guarantor who could help out. I'm happy to reduce one of my tenant's rent if his salary drops providing he can prove it, very few landlords would be nasty enough and foolhardy enough to get nasty with their tenant not least because it is a good business decision to be helpful during this unprecedented situation.

I agree with Jon. I agree not all landlords have no mortgage but plenty have none and only one property and no savings and live off that rent and are a bit too old easily to get a job whereas the tenants could get a job.

Is it a punitive stance to require payment for services? Would it be a punitive stance if when I was in Tesco I suggested as the company is richer than I am I should get my food for no charge and they refused?

You say the landlord isn't being punitive. As I understand the message to the OP, despite the LL having an opportunity to not pay her mortgage for 3 months and add it to the end of the mortgage term, she wants 3 months of missing rent paid by the tenants plus £600 interest immediately after this pandemic.
The tenants aren't in arrears, yet on their first communication to the LL she is bringing up their guarantor. As he's a parent of the tenant, presumably LL is aware he could be elderly, in isolation. Hmmm

Can I just point out that the OP has asked if she can’t cover her rent, she asked for a payment holiday, and then pay back her rent arrears.
The landlord said yes in theory if she paid back the additional interest that she would incur as the landlord can’t afford to cover the mortgage with her tenants rent.All those saying that the LL should cover the mortgage payments herself, do not get it she is giving a rental holiday as are the banks to mortgage customers but penalties and interest will be added, £600 would be the interest in those 3 months why should the LL pay additional interest on that £600 over the course of the mortgage life.

A mortgage holiday could also effect the LL credit file....

@DianaT1969 renters will get help with some rent on UC, nothing for LL or home owners......

@Teenangels - are you this OP's landlord??

Good point although the issue of a tenant becoming a housing benefit or UC claimant when the landlord's mortgage conditions may prohibit benefits claimants might be a tricky one.

It doesn't matter if the landlord's mortgage prohibits benefit tenants. Many people long before Covid got sick or were made redundant mid tenancy. They claim benefits and legally don't have to tell the landlord. Even if they do tell the landlord it's illegal to evict before the end of tenancy for that reason. I read of a campaign to make it illegal for mortgage or insurers to forbid benefits tenants. Let's hope it succeeds. It's already been shown to act as indirect sex and disability discrimination since women and the disabled are more likely to need benefits.

@DianaT1969 no I am not! I just can not get over the fact that the OP has said why should I pay the additional cost of my LL mortgage if I do get a rent holiday!. I would be grateful that my LL allowed the grace period while this CV eases up. I really don't understand the OP refusal to see that LL will have extra costs, the £600 could be paid off in 12 months by increasing the rent by £50 a month plus the arrears that she will pay off, as she has stated she has savings and could comfortably afford the rent every month before this.

@tryingtoprep you miss the point. It is a condition of many btl mortgages that the landlord cannot rent to tenants in receipt of state benefits. That is not the landlord's choice. If in breach of a btl mortgage, repossession against landlords is much easier.

My landlords insurance prohibits tenants who receive benefits apart from permanent disability benefits so if our tenant became non working for any length of time that would be an issue.

Non working in a way that required benefit support I suppose.