Signature Service Late Rent Notice Made Easy

Signed electronically late rent notice

assuming that donald trump signs into law the new stimulus bill which at the time of this recording he still hasn't done landlords and tenants are going to get a 25 billion rent relief program what's included in the program how it all works who's eligible how long it's going to take and will it be enough are all questions that i'm going to answer in this video coming up hey guys if we're just meeting my name is vitale volpof i'm a practicing attorney an active real estate investor and the part owner of a real estate brokerage in upstate new york on this channel i discuss relevant legal concepts as well as best strategies and tips for real estate investing and personal finance if you're new to the channel consider subscribing and hitting the notification bell so that youtube notifies you of all my future content if you enjoy the content in this video hit the like button and comment down below as always whenever i'm discussing legal concepts just remember nothing that i say should be construed as legal advice i provide this information for educational and entertainment purposes only and you should always consult with your own advisor and your own attorney before making any legal or financial decisions last but not least the views and opinions that i expressed in this video are my own alone and don't necessarily reflect those of my law firm or any of my business partners alright so before we talk about the rental assistance i first want to mention that the new stimulus bill contains an extension of the cdc eviction moratorium a couple of weeks ago i did a video talking about the cdc eviction moratorium and how landlords can still evict tennis despite it being in place one of the features of the cdc eviction moratorium is that it was set to expire on december 31st 2020 and i predicted in that video that that moratorium was definitely going to be extended and now lo and behold congress is extending it through this new stimulus bill but although congress is extending it only until january 31st 2021 i guarantee you i'm 99.9 confident that either congress president-elect biden or the cdc are going to extend this eviction moratorium further so if you're a landlord struggling with a terrible tenant and you're wondering what can i do how can i get my property back you may want to check out that video that i did a couple of weeks ago i'll put a link to it in the description below and on the youtube card above which talks about six potential ways that you can evict the tenant despite the cdc moratorium being in place now as i mentioned in that video and as i'm telling you in this video definitely don't try to do this alone you're gonna need an attorney talk to a good qualified competent eviction attorney and get help from them before you begin the eviction process so with that out of the way let's talk about the emergency rental assistance bill in this new stimulus package some of you may know there are a lot of things in the new stimulus bill in fact the stimulus bill is an omnibus bill which contains almost 5 600 pages and there are all kinds of provisions tucked away in this bill one of them is this rental assistance program if anyone is curious it is located on pages 2255 through 2280 of the pdf document that comprises the current version of this bill so what are the amounts that are appropriated by congress for this rental assistance purpose well there's a total of 25 billion dollars that congress has appropriated for it 400 million of that is going to go to the u.s territories territories like united states virgin islands guam puerto rico etc 800 million of this 25 billion total is going to go to indian tribes 15 million is going to go to administrative expenses and finally 23.785 billion is going to go to the states and local governments within those states so how is this going to work how will the funds be distributed well first the funds are going to originate from the u.s treasury the treasury's supposed to distribute this 25 billion dollars to the states and the other entities that i just described within 30 days of the enactment of this new stimulus bill now the enactment of the bill doesn't occur until the president signs it into law so so far we've had the house and the senate vote on it and it passed with majorities in both houses the next step is for president donald trump to sign it into law and as you may have heard on the news recently president donald trump does not very much like this new stimulus bill although he hasn't said it directly he has indicated that he may be vetoing this bill so as of the date of the recording of this video he still hasn't signed it and it's possible that this bill may not become law after all but having said that i do believe that there will be a stimulus bill that he will sign whether or not it contains the six hundred dollars or the two thousand dollars to every american provision in it i don't know but i do think that whatever bill he ends up signing is going to contain the rental assistance program within it this is a bipartisan provision that congress has put into this bill and it's been negotiated i do believe that it will stay intact so since most of you watching this video are probably living in one of the states within the united states let's talk about how the 23.875 billion dollars is going to be divided among those states the bill provides that the funds will be distributed to each state on a pro-rata basis based on each state's population states will then distribute the funds to their applicants there's a provision in there however that says that no state shall receive less than 200 million dollars in rental assistance funds so as an example of the way that the pro rata of portioning is supposed to work if we look at the population of new york which is approximately 20 million people or six percent of the total population of 330 million people in the united states we would take the six percent multiply it by the total amount available which is 23.875 billion dollars that's the amount available to the states and we get somewhere around 1.432 billion dollars now the actual amount on this is going to vary because of the minimum threshold requirement of 200 million dollars per state but it's likely going to be somewhere around the 1 billion amount for new york so how will the funds be used the funds can only be used to quote provide financial assistance and housing stability services to eligible households financial assistance within the context of this provision means assistance with rent rent arrears utilities and home energy costs utilities and home energy cost arrears and other expenses relating to housing incurred due directly or indirectly to the virus outbreak ninety percent of the funds must go toward financial assistance 10 of the funds can go toward housing stability services which would include things like case management and other services related to the outbreak which are intended to help keep households stably housed financial assistance cannot initially exceed 12 months of rent payments three additional months may be provided quote only if necessary to ensure housing stability for household and this will be subject to the overall availability of funds congress wants to make sure that states use the majority of this money 90 toward rent arrears utilities rent payments and things like that and not use the majority of this money for various social programs that they might come up with so one interesting feature about this program is that there's a limitation on prospective payments so prospective rent payments these are payments for rent going forward as opposed to back rent are limited to no more than three months to the extent that applicants have rental arrears states may not make commitments for prospective rent payments unless they have also provided assistance to reduce and eligible households rental arrears in other words the rental assistance must go toward background first and only then to prospective rent and this is an express provision to protect landlords who have been getting killed having to carry all property expenses without rent coming in now if you are a landlord and you've been a landlord most of this year you know how bad it is right now a lot of landlords are struggling because tenants haven't been able to pay rent and landlords have not been able to recover their properties from those tenants because of the various eviction bans so basically landlords have been in a no man's land where they can't make money they can't get revenue to pay for the expenses for their properties and yet they have to continue maintaining the properties and paying for taxes insurance utilities things like that throughout this pandemic so congress recognizing that is putting this provision into this bill specifically to help landlords and to ensure that they don't go into foreclosure to ensure that properties don't become dilapidated in an attempt to keep rental housing markets solvent another interesting thing about this program is that the rental assistance that's going to be coming from it has to be distributed directly to the lessor or the utility provider on behalf of the eligible household so the default here is that the money will go from the state to the landlord or to the utility company and not to the tenants again this is another provision that was put in here on purpose because congress knows that if tenants receive this money they could use it for other things as opposed to using it for their rent since there are bans on evictions in place currently and a lot of tenants are not really incentivized to pay their rent because they will stay in the home whether or not they pay or don't pay their landlord if after the state has contacted the lessor or utility provider and the lassor the utility provider did not accept the payment the payment may be made to the tenant quote for the purpose of making payments to the lessor or the utility provider another very important provision that is in this program is that congress specified that the receipt of rental assistance shall not be construed to invalidate any otherwise legitimate grounds for eviction in other words a state cannot require landlords to waive their rights to evict tenants for other legitimate reasons except for non-payment of the arrears for which landlords have received this assistance so as an example and this is my interpretation again talk to your own counsel once this becomes law make sure you get separate advice but this is my interpretation of this provision an example will be a tenant owe six months of back rent landlord applies on behalf of the tenant receives six months of background from the stimulus funds and then after receiving the payments the tenant pays rent over the course of the next two months but then stops paying again the landlord would be able to evict that tenant assuming other state or federal laws do not restrict evictions based on subsequent non-payment of rent so what congress is trying to avoid is a situation where a state that has received these funds and is set to distribute them to landlords also says to landlords in order for you to receive these funds in order for you to accept them you must attest that you won't evict the tenant for any reason for say a period of one year the reason this provision is in here is because congress understands that if states are allowed to place this type of limitation on the receipt of the assistance funds then the landlords may end up being in the same position that they're in now in just a few months with regard to prioritization of assistance the states are required to prioritize assistance based on any of the following income of the household does not exceed 50 percent of the area median income for households one or more individuals in the household are unemployed at the time of application and have been unemployed for 90 days preceding the date of application or allow states to further prioritize based on household members being unable to quote reach their place of employment or because their place of employment was closed due to a shutdown order related to the pandemic so basically tenants who fall under any of these categories would be eligible for this rental assistance so let's talk about how applications for assistance are supposed to be submitted this provision is one of the most surprising provisions to me but also one that i think is necessary the language and the stimulus bill provides that landlords or owners are not precluded from assisting a renter in applying for assistance landlords or owners are also not precluded from applying for such assistance on behalf of a renter of such dwelling in the event that landlords do submit an application on behalf of their tenants there are some additional requirements the landlord must obtain the tenant's signature on the application which can be done electronically documentation of such application must be provided to the tenant by the landlord and quote any payments received by the landlord from a payment made under this section shall be used to satisfy the tenant's rental obligations to the owner the key thing here in my opinion is getting your tenants cooperation to sign the application depending on your relationship with the tenant and how things have gone so far this may be hard or it may be easy i know a lot of tenants have basically stopped responding to their landlords they have blocked their phone numbers and have been ignoring them for months and not paying in rent because they know about the eviction bans in that circumstance it may be very hard for a landlord to actually get through to a tenant get them to agree to sign an application which would allow the landlord to get paid i think one possible negotiating tactic could be that if they do this if they sign an application if they help you apply for them on their behalf and you get paid the rent that is due then they won't have a judgment hanging over their heads because remember even though the eviction bans are in place it does not mean that rent has been canceled so those tenants who owe this back rent at some point will eventually owe this money the longer they go without making payments the more they'll owe at the end of the day when the eviction bans are lifted and landlords can take the tenants to court and obtain judgments against them so in this regard it's actually to the tenant's benefit to agree to cooperate with the landlord and sign the application for this rental assistance as opposed to just ignoring their landlord so this may be one way you can talk to your tenants and try to get them to understand that this is for their benefit not just your benefit obviously you can also negotiate other deals where maybe the rental assistance won't be enough to cover all the arrears that are currently owed but you will forgive whatever the remainder is if the tenant agrees to sign this application and if you get the payment from the state so obviously this is not a foolproof method to obtaining cooperation from the tenants and it's not really ideal to have to get the tenant's signature but at the same time it's a lot better than what new york state did a few months ago where only tenants could apply and a lot of tenants simply didn't know how didn't do it right or didn't care to apply and therefore the assistance didn't get to the tenants and the landlords where it was intended to go an eligible household is defined as a household of one or more individuals who are obligated to pay rent on a residential dwelling where the state determines that one or more individuals within the household has one qualify for unemployment benefits or two experience the reduction in household income incurred significant costs or experience other financial hardship due directly or indirectly to the virus outbreak and this must be attested to in writing by the applicant the definition reads further that one or more individuals within the household can demonstrate a risk of experiencing homelessness or housing instability which may include one a past due utility or rent notice or eviction notice two unsafe or unhealthy living conditions or three any other evidence of such risk as determined by the state and finally the household has a household income that is not more than 80 percent of the area median income for that household so in order to be eligible all three of these bullet points need to be true that is one or more of the individuals within the household is on unemployment or experiencing reduction in their income that they are also at risk of eviction which can be shown by past due utility rent notice or eviction notice or by showing that there are some kind of unhealthy living conditions or any other evidence that the state will dictate and that the household has an income that is not more than 80 percent of the median income so what this is saying is that priority will be given to those households who are currently struggling financially and this is understandable presumably individuals and households that are not paying their rent right now are doing so because they've hit a financial hardship as a result of the pandemic so i think that most households that haven't paid their rent so far are probably easily within these categories in determining the income of a household the grantee shall consider the following one the household's total income for calendar year 2020 or two sufficient confirmation of the household's monthly income at the time of application which will be redetermined every three months so presumably a state's application process is going to ask tenants to provide some documentation showing what their income has been in the year 2020. alternatively tenants may be able to submit information that shows what their current monthly income is on the month-to-month basis now in all likelihood states are not going to be able to roll these programs out very quickly and we're likely looking at maybe february or march at the earliest when these programs and these applications are going to be accepted so by then hopefully tenants will have their tax returns done and will be able to use it as documentation to show proof of their 2020 income so other notable provisions in here include that assistance received by or credited to the household will not be regarded as income or as a resource for purposes of determining eligibility for any other benefits or assistance so rental assistance provided pursuant to this program won't be counted as income for tax purposes for example or for any other local or state programs that may exist additionally the inspector general of the treasury department is granted the power to recoup the funds from any state territory or unit of local government which fails to comply with the requirements relating to the use of funds and this is relating to what i was talking about a couple of minutes ago where the states are required to use at least 90 percent of these funds to pay for rent arrears rental assistance and utility payments and not for any other type of social programs if states violate this this provision says that the inspector general can recoup these funds directly from the states and basically claw them back to the federal government this should provide a disincentive for states to get into any kind of shenanigans with this money so what are the potential issues with this program well first question is will 25 billion dollars be enough my hunch is probably not according to some estimates approximately 20 million renters are behind a rent right now nearly 12 million of those renters will owe an average of five thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars in back rent and utilities by january twenty twenty one this is according to moody's analytics and the washington post other estimates put the total rent and utilities arrears around 70 billion dollars by january 2021. now i'm no math whiz but 25 billion dollars does not equal 70 billion dollars so we're likely going to have a pretty significant shortfall despite this rental assistance being in place another issue that i see is the lack of efficiency by state governments in being able to distribute this rental assistance you can look no further than the example of new york state from earlier this year new york state was allocated 100 million dollars from the cares act for rent relief it passed legislation in may 2020 authorizing the spending and creation of a convoluted application process landlords could not apply for their tenants unlike this bill tenants had only three weeks from mid-july to first week of august to apply rent assistance was only partial based on another convoluted formula and many tenants didn't know about it and so didn't apply or they filled out the applications incorrectly or they simply weren't eligible because of the convoluted application criteria as of october 28 2020 the new york housing agency distributed only 23 million 210 000 to 9611 applicants of the total 100 million dollars that was allocated approximately 16 million 767 000 in rent assistance was quote pending distribution to another 5 411 more applicants the rest some 60 million has yet to be distributed and it's been months we're talking about four five six months since this could have been distributed originally the state did nothing more from august 6 2020 when the application portal closed to december 2020 to try to distribute more of this money it was not until december 3rd just a couple of weeks ago that cuomo finally announced that he would issue an executive order to reopen the application window again so the rest of the money could be distributed all because they realize that the money could be recouped back by the federal government if it wasn't spent by december 31st this is what we have to look forward to state governments like new york distributing this rental assistance do i think that they're going to be efficient no i definitely don't think they're going to be efficient my prediction is that it's going to take new york state several months to distribute this money to those who need it i'm really hoping that i'm wrong about this but honestly recent past history hasn't given me a ton of confidence in our state government's ability to do this well so what should landlords do now well the first thing is hope that donald trump actually signs the stimulus bill into law if he doesn't do that then you know all this is out the window the next thing you should do is find out which agency in your state will be administering this rent relief add their website to your favorites tab and check on it daily keep an eye on your state's news for announcements of when the applications will be accepted you want to get in there and be one of the first to do so because i think this money is going to go fast we know that it's not enough to cover all the arrears and help everyone so the longer you wait the less likely it will be that you will actually get any funds from this reach out to your tenants who are behind on their rent ahead of time and let them know that this is coming talk to them explain to them the benefits for them and for you in applying for this as soon as possible your state agency will likely release additional guidance and information and instructions on how you should apply and will likely add additional bureaucratic complications to the application process so just expect that and know that it's coming and be ready for it finally when the application period opens make sure that you apply as soon as possible so with that said that's going to do it for this video if you have any questions about anything that i said please drop a comment in the comment section below i try to answer every single question that i get if you enjoyed this video do me a favor hit the like button and if you haven't yet subscribed to my channel definitely subscribe so that you don't miss any of my future content lastly if you are trying to diversify your investments right now if you're not all in real estate and you're looking to invest in stocks bonds or etfs i would suggest using a commission free platform like weibo right now weibo is running a promotion where you get four free stocks for signing up using my link in the description below each of those stocks may be valued up to sixteen hundred dollars so if you're interested in that click on the link in the description below you will help my channel out and you will get some free stocks in the process thanks again for watching happy holidays have a great day and i'll see you in the next one take [Music] care [Music] you