Landlord rights: No recourse during rent moratorium

The other day I felt a sense of irony that I mailed two property tax payments and one of the properties is of almost no value to my wife and me since we have a squatter living in it.

It’s a four-bedroom house in Fircrest. We have received only $400 from the “renter” since April. My wife still works as a registered nurse at a local hospital while I’m retired.

I planned my retirement for years so we aren’t destitute, but since we had a water leak in our home and the insurance paid for only a portion of the repairs, we are now having to tap into resources that we shouldn’t have needed to touch.

The national moratorium on renters and landlord rights at least mandates that those who aren’t paying their rent are obligated to sign an affidavit stating they couldn’t pay and had sought assistance to help them pay.

Our state doesn’t even require this simple mandate. I suspect our renter is rolling the dice and hoping to be released from the debt. Meanwhile, I can’t get her to answer a call, an email or the front door.

This story was originally published November 4, 2020 at 1:44 PM with the headline "Landlord rights: No recourse during rent moratorium."