[ctdonath]

Costs continue. Mortgage payments continue, heat/water/electric bills must be paid, maintenance continues, legal wrangling over legit evictions (say, trashing the place) is costly. Cutting those costs can stabilize losses. Empty flats can be deducted from taxes as lost income. Other tax & accounting benefits may apply.

Part of the benefit of renting - for both parties - is ease of vacating.

[gruez]

>Empty flats can be deducted from taxes as lost income.

AFAIK there's no "lost income" deduction. Yes, you pay less taxes, but that because you had less income to begin with, not because of some deduction. If a tenant is not paying, then you're not getting income, so you're already paying less taxes.

[ctdonath]

Depends on the local tax law. Confluence of maintenance costs vs depreciation vs revenue vs other legal accounting issues can result in reducing/eliminating taxes - even if you have a net positive income.

Upshot: evicting non paying tenants can be profitable, while letting them stay on “they’ll come thru, just give them time” grounds can mean losing the property outright. (Strange this must be explained on Ycombinator.com.)

https://www.realwealthnetwork.com/learn/landlord-tax-deducti...

[wrsh07]

Definitely not a landlord, so forgive the unfamiliarity:

Are you not able to claim rental property losses if you simply have a tenant who is unable to pay?

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My model for dealing with a pandemic-induced economic slow-down is that if you can just jump forward til the end, most things will revert to normal (for airline companies but also tenants who can't pay rent)

It's not clear to me that evicting someone and then needing to cut rates to find a new tenant who can afford to rent is a better deal than keeping someone who has fallen on hard times for very straightforward reasons