This is unchartered water for everyone. With tenants losing jobs or having to work from home, to landlords not knowing if they will be able to make their next mortgage payment, there is a lot of uncertainty going around right now with the Coronavirus. I definitely do not have all the answers or know if these answers will be right by the time this gets posted. But, I wanted to create this post as a resource for both tenants and landlords in Chicago, and I will continue to update as more info comes available.
Resources for Tenants who are struggling with job loss or lay offs:
How to get coronavirus unemployment:
Chicago Rental assistance
For landlords:
I would encourage you to be prepared for a percentage of tenants to not pay rent on time next month. Now is the time to develop a response on how you are going to handle the issues that arise from this pandemic. Just make sure to deal with all tenants the same way to stay out of hot water. We are waiting on more info to come on if mortgage payments will be delayed or not like they are predicting. My other piece of advice would be to make sure buildings are cleaned more often than normal.
Please also note that currently the courts are closed and thus evictions in Chicago are not currently able to be filed. However, you will be able to file once the courts reopen if you do not have a payment plan in place with your past due tenants yet.
