Kind landlord freezes rent for tenant left without job in coronavirus crisis
Clive Millard from Sudbury has allowed his tenant a payment holiday during the lockdown to ease the financial burden. Picture: ANNE MILLARD - Credit: Archant
A landlord has enforced a payment holiday towards one of his rentals after his tenant lost his job and is urging other property owners to follow suit.
Clive Millard, co-director of a small business in Sudbury supplying labour for aggregate shipping companies, owns a property in Beccles and was concerned that his tenant would struggle amid the financial woes of the lockdown.
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To help assure his tenant that there would be no financial repercussions, Mr Millard chose to freeze the monthly rent, without fear of having to pay the amount back once the lockdown period is over.
Mr Millard, 62, said: “On realising we were entering difficult times financially, we decided to offer a three-month payment holiday to our tenant to help ease their worries.
“I felt very pleased that I could help someone in these difficult times, so I put this suggestion on Facebook to ask other landlords to join me in giving something back to people in these troubled times.”
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The tenant was given the good news about the payment holiday on the same day that he found out he had been laid off from his job - so was humbled by his landlord’s touching gesture.
Mr Millard said: “On speaking with them, they told me they had been laid off work that very day and were worried about finding other work to pay for things.
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“They wanted to know if the payments would be increased after the three months to pay back the debt, but I assured them it was a payment holiday and would go back to normal payments afterwards.”
“The tenant became very emotional and later apologised in an email and thanked me for my understanding and generosity with things.
“I understand the government has a very hard job in deciding where to give money to help people in these unprecedented times and the amount it has given out is truly unbelievable.
“Hats off to them for that, but we all need to look at ourselves and see where we can help out too.
“We are living in a very ‘me, me, me’ society. This has shown its ugly head in all the panic buying and hoarding of certain items.
“Hopefully, when we come out the other side, we can reflect on this single-minded selfishness and become a better nation once again.”
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