For a year there has been talk on the news and in state and federal legislatures on how to get financial relief to renters who cannot pay their rent due to issues related to COVID. Congress, the CDC and the Trump and Biden Administrations thought they had an answer: 1) impose an eviction moratorium to prevent people from being forced out onto the streets and into crowded shelters, 2) add money to the stimulus package that would provide money to tenants to pay their rent with. The problem however, is that the moratorium is continuing with no end in sight and the money provided for rent is going to other expenses. As the moratorium continues, landlords cannot get unpaying tenants out and re-rent the premises to those who can pay. Additionally the government did not put in a way to ensure that monies provided for rent are actually going to the landlords so they can pay their expenses. As such, both parties are being hurt.
Landlords cannot re-rent the apartments and homes to those who will pay. Every month they take their tenants to Court and get a judgment which they can do little with until the moratorium ends. Recently, the tenants, realizing that the landlords have little power over them, have stopped paying altogether. By not paying, tenants are only pushing off an inevitable wave of debts and eviction. Landlords are facing a financial crises of their own and they have no way to stop it. Federal stimulus money set aside for rent is being applied for by renters and then used for other expenses. There is no enforcement for how the money is to be used. There are no procedures for sending the money directly to the landlords. There is no recourse if a tenant applies for rental assistance, receives it, but doesn’t forward it to the landlord.
People do not realize that bankruptcy can save a landlord as well as a tenant and give them a fresh start. Tenants in Philadelphia, north east Philadelphia, Bucks County, Easton, Allentown and Scranton should consider bankruptcy. One day the eviction moratorium will end. When it does the Courts will be flooded with requests for eviction. Bankruptcy stays the eviction so long as the tenant files BEFORE a judgment. Landlords are going to Court now to get a judgment and waiting to evict. Don’t wait to file for bankruptcy when the moratorium ends. By then there is already a judgment and bankruptcy will not save your home. file now as you are accruing debt each month that will be owed later. A
As for the landlords, bankruptcy will save you from the mortgage companies that a circling like sharks in the water. Bankruptcy will stop the collection agencies looking for repayment of the mortgage debt. Landlords who can’t pay the mortgage on the rental properties are becoming late on other debts as well. Bankruptcy helps here too. With bankruptcy you can either eliminate or restructure debt. It gives you back some power over the situation and helps you ride out the storm.
We don’t know when the eviction moratorium will end. We do however know when you can seek help and that time is now.
