Landlords waive rent due to coronavirus lockdown

As the nation struggles with the 21-day lockdown and economic activities virtually came to a standstill, landlords have started waiving rents to help tenants cope

As the nation struggles with the 21-day lockdown and economic activities virtually came to a standstill, landlords have started waiving rents to help tenants cope with this problem. The reason behind this move is that given high rental rates in the city, rents consume a significant portion of the expenditure.

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On Thursday, three landlords waived off three months’ rents of their tenants at Juhu and Andheri. “There is no business activity and the tenants would have found it very hard to continue in the place. Hence, I convinced the landlords to waive rent,” said Vikram Mehta, president of a leading realty brokerage firm.

Similarly Lodha Group has waived rentals of about 200 commercial tenants in their properties of Palava City, Thane, south Mumbai and Pune till normalcy returns. “Since the retailers need to focus on paying salaries to their employees and taking care of their families, rents are huge stress on them. Hence we decided to reduce this stress,” said the company spokesperson.

Rents are also a major source of income for many families. Lalit Mangtani who has several shops in Thakur village at Kandivali said he would waive 50 % of rents from his tenants. “Rents are the only source of my income. However I can anticipate the problem faced by my tenant and hence decided to lessen this burden,” said Mangtani.