We buy houses in Dracut Massachusetts. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on almost every industry and segment of society since the outbreak. To this day, those negative impacts have not stopped. In fact, they have only worsened. Our team of homebuyers in MA is more than willing to help you through it.
The pandemic’s effects on landlords and renters present particularly difficult challenges and complicated problems. Government officials in Massachusetts have had to step in to help renters avoid getting evicted during the pandemic.
How COVID-19 Has Affected Dracut MA Landlords
Rising Costs And Piling Debt In Dracut
Some might say that the Massachusetts landlords have had it rougher than the renters, but the fact is that COVID-19 has affected almost everyone negatively.
Most landlords rent part of their properties to help pay their bills and other costs, while others rent their properties to generate income. However, the extended eviction moratorium has already put Massachusetts landlords in an impossible position—even before it was extended!
The Massachusetts eviction moratorium provides temporary relief for hundreds of thousands of renters who have lost work over the past few months and face bills that many of them can’t afford. But the landlords, who gain nothing from the moratorium, say they need help, too. All landlords, including the small ones, are still expected to pay costs like mortgage, insurance, taxes, and repairs despite the moratorium.
Massachusetts landlords are stuck between tenants who can’t—or simply won’t—pay rent and banks that still expect them to pay for their mortgage every month. As they are stuck between a rock and a hard place, most landlords say that the Massachusetts eviction moratorium has put them in an impossible position. They don’t want to evict their tenants in the middle of a health and economic crisis, but they also don’t want to lose any more money or risk going broke.
Aid For Massachusetts Landlords
According to a survey by MassLandlords, by mid-May, about 20 percent of rent payments statewide had already been late. More renters had fallen behind when the weekly $600 federal unemployment benefits ended.
In the same survey, one-fifth of the landlords had said they didn’t know how they would pay their bills for the rest of the year. MassLandlords Executive Director Doug Quattrochi added that if no help comes for the property owners, many would have to sell their Massachusetts properties or lose them to foreclosure.
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker has so far released $38 million in rental and mortgage assistance since the pandemic began. When he extended the moratorium, he promised that he would keep looking for funds to help landlords and renters alike as the pandemic continues.
Doug Quattrochi and his group are seeking for an aid for landlords—in the form of state-issued bonds that would guarantee the unpaid rent for landlords in exchange for an agreement not to evict any of their tenants. They suggested that the funding could come from a 1 percent surcharge on the sale of single-family homes. They estimate that this could raise roughly $1 billion over three years.
Some landlords have spoken up, saying that they wouldn’t evict their tenants even if their rent payments were late. Despite that, they believe that all of the burden shouldn’t fall on the landlords’ shoulders alone. However, with the extension of the Massachusetts eviction moratorium, many landlords are starting to believe that that is exactly what might happen. Massachusetts landlords are facing a dilemma with no end in sight.
Marie Baptiste V. Commonwealth Of Massachusetts
Marie Baptiste is a nurse who owns a rental property in Randolph. She had kept her old house when she moved to her new home, thinking that the rent would help her pay the bills when she retires. However, it has not gone the way she had hoped or thought it would.
Lately, she has had to withdraw money out of her retirement savings to cover the mortgage, property taxes, and insurance because her tenant stopped paying rent last fall, well before the COVID-19 pandemic. Her tenant owes her nearly $19,000, but she is unable to do anything as there is a freeze on evictions, which has been extended until October.
The eviction moratorium has left landlords in need of rent payments and dissatisfied with how the government has handled the issue. As a result, Massachusetts landlords have filed a lawsuit against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development. The basis of this lawsuit is that they believe the eviction moratorium to be unconstitutional.
Attorney Richard Vetstein, lead counsel for the property owners, argues that the Massachusetts moratorium violates four constitutional rights of landlords. These are the right to petition the judiciary, the right of free speech under the First Amendment, the right to just compensation for an unlawful taking of their property under the Fifth Amendment, and is an unconstitutional impairment of their leases under the Contracts Clause of the US Constitution.
A day after he extended the eviction moratorium, Governor Baker defended his decision, saying that the issue was worsened by the lack of access to the court system.
Experts have estimated that a tsunami of evictions would occur, should the eviction moratorium be lifted. This is what government officials fear, as this would lead to homelessness, which could in turn lead to another spike in the number of COVID-19 cases in the US.
As of this moment, it seems that Massachusetts landlords have no choice but to put up with the current situation. You can learn more about the lawsuit on Attorney Vetstein’s Mass Real Estate Blog where he is keeping the public up to date with the ongoing lawsuit.
Sell My House In Dracut MA
One option available for landlords economically affected by COVID-19 is selling a property to reliable and professional MA home buyers. Should you decide to sell your house in Massachusetts or wish to learn about your other options, get in touch with us. At New England Home Buyers, we offer not just cash for houses in Dracut MA. You can also count on us to help you in dealing with the pandemic’s effects on the real estate industry and maintaining good relationships with your tenants even in a very challenging time.
