By Sharina Ahmad
THE economic effects of Covid-19 continue to mount, with rising job losses, pay cut and falling consumer confidence. This has turned people’s lives upside down, and many are now facing difficulties in paying their rent and bills.
Rent is traditionally due on the first of the month, and more tenants are becoming late to settle their payments. As such, most landlords who have to service their bank loans will find it difficult to do so if tenants continue to defer rent payment.
According to Bank Negara Malaysia, the unemployment rate is expected to rise to 4% this year. Labour market conditions in general are expected to be weak this year, no thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Engineer S. Suppiah who has a condominium in the city centre said he has given a discount to his tenant to make it easier to pay rent during this difficult time.
“It’s gotten to this point where some of them really cannot pay rent because doing so would jeopardise their ability to buy food or basically survive. So, I have offered a RM500 discount to my tenant for the next six months since he has lost his job due to this pandemic. He told me he will try to pay back once when the situation normalises,” he said.
Another landlord, Nazery Khalid, said it wouldn’t be in his interest to not have his long-standing tenant, who has been paying rental diligently and on time, to move out during this crisis.
“As an apartment owner, I appreciate my tenant who has always taken good care of my property well. If he moves out now, who knows what kind of tenant I will get after this.
“We have a very long relationship which I’d like to see continue. He has not indicated that he is in financial doldrums as he has paid his rental. During the movement control order, he paid in full and on time as usual, but if he is (in financial difficulty), I will go out of my way to help ease his burden,” he said.
“Per se, I’ll let him pay half of the rental for the time being until he gets his financial footing back on track, then he can pay me back the amount owed,” he said.
He felt that in these uncertain economic times, property owners and tenants have to give and take in the best interest of both. “To me, renting is a partnership, hence it requires teamwork and cooperation to make it work.”
Nina Omar, who owns an apartment, said she has agreed to lower the rental for the next six months, provided the tenant pays the maintenance fee.
“To ease her burden, I’m willing to slash half of the amount, but she needs to pay the maintenance fee which normally must be paid by the landlord. This is to avoid the deactivation for an access card to your residential, access to common facilities and so on,” she explained.
“Hopefully they will be able to pay the rental in the following months. However, I have the fear of them not paying,” she said.
She said the tenant might have difficulties in paying up the rental as her work was tourism-related which is now badly affected due to Covid-19. – May 6, 2020
