Landlords suffer due to delays

Thousands of property owners are reportedly dismayed as, despite having suffered a big drop in their rental revenues, they are still waiting to be partly compensated by the state for their November losses.

Landlords’ errors aside, multiple problems have been identified that the law had not anticipated, including discrepancies attributed to the tenants, resulting in the owners waiting for months to get what the state has promised them.

At the same time, the statements by Finance Ministry officials are bringing about unfavorable changes in the compensation that is owed to landlords. According to the original declarations by the ministry, the November compensation should have already been paid out to all landlords (while many of them are still waiting), as well as that of December, while by the end of this month the compensation for January and February is also due, including the 80% coverage of the rents lost.

Now the ministry’s new planning has left owners disappointed again, especially those who live on this form of income – as it provides for the compensation of December to be paid out on Thursday or on Friday, the January dues to be disbursed in early March, those of February in early April and a month later the compensation for March.

No one can really understand this delay by the government, given that owners are practically contributing toward keeping enterprises and households from going bankrupt. The haphazard approach is more than obvious, as in several cases the compensation received was far below what was expected.

This is due to the decision to set the middle of each month as the normal payday of the rent, so the system has taken into account the income loss for half a month and not its entirety. That has resulted in reduced compensation in many cases.

Meanwhile an amendment the ministry tabled in Parliament late on Monday paves the way for the extension of the full exemption of March rents, too, for enterprises closed upon state order.