Landlord Says He Won’t Collect Rent During Coronavirus Outbreak

A Maine landlord is telling his tenants he will not collect rent for the month of April due to the coronavirus outbreak, and he is urging other landlords to do the same.

Nathan Nichols, who owns two units in an apartment building in South Portland, Maine, said he needs his tenants as much as they need him because it would cause him greater financial hardship to lose them than to waive a month’s rent.

One of his tenants has a small child and works on a single hourly income.

“They’re great tenants. I want to keep them. I could see this would cause hardship for them. They work as hourly employees and in the service industries, which are both being hit really hard. I’m fortunate enough to have a full-time job where I can work from home,” Nichols told WGME.

Nichols wrote a Facebook post about his efforts, which was shared more than 24,000 times and received more than 4,000 reactions.

The post also received more than 1,000 comments, many praising his kind deed.

“It’s good to know that within all this pandemic pandemonium there are still people with pure hearts helping us poor people. You will reap many blessings sir,” one comment read.

Nichols has a total of six tenants, WCSH reported.

Nichols is also challenging his fellow landlords to follow in his footsteps.

“If more people do this, which is the only reason I posted this in the first place, to hopefully get people to take a hard look at what they can do to keep things working,” Nichols told WMTW.