Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by dataflow 1850 days ago
> What does this even mean? In the US atleast, mortgages are a fixed set of payments. Usually, it is a total of 360 payments. You dont pay "for specific months" you pay a specific number of payments. Deferment means you still make all 360 payments, just at different times.

Which is entirely the point, and which is the luxury renters don't have. Say for example you have 1 year of mortgage left ($X), and the pandemic is also going to be over in 1 year. The schedule shift means you will need to pay $0 by a year from now (i.e. when the pandemic & associated reliefs are over). You will simply have to pay $X in 2 years—which you can obtain by evicting your tenant and getting your rental income the second year. By contrast, your tenant will have to pay the entire $X after the moratorium is over in 1 year (not in 2 years). That's terrible in comparison. They don't have the luxury of shifting everything an extra year like a landlord.

> Renters backpaying rent is questionable. Once a renter is behind 12 months it is unlikely they will ever catch up. The typical response is the fear of credit blemishes -- except even this fear is gone in places like NYC -- many renters are holding occupancy of the property until all past rent is forgiven, wiping out all past liabilities.

Well it's up to you as a landlord if you don't want to pursue your tenant for their debts. You could offer a schedule shift if you wanted to, or do whatever else you wanted, if you really wanted to get your money back. If another landlord doesn't want to pursue their tenant, it's up to them. Not up to us to get sad about it.