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Did you have to pay rent this month?

A lot of people have been getting in touch with me regarding apartment rents if they have to pay them or not. Honestly, I have no clue, I don’t think anything was announced regarding rents so I’d assume it’s up to the landlords.

Some landlords are still asking for the full rent this month, others waived the rent completely while some have reduced the amount. I’m still waiting to find out if my building will be taking rent from us as usual this month or not but I haven’t gotten the payment link yet. I know the tenants of my building submitted a request for the rent to be waived or reduced, but we haven’t gotten any notice about it yet.

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64 replies on “Did you have to pay rent this month?”

Honestly, I asked the landlord for it and he reduced 25% for this month [April’s]. I think it’s about time some regulation comes in place to help those impacted the most based on who’s working and who’s not anymore.

I dont have salary from March. How can I pay rent. I paid half rent in March. April may june. I din’t pay. I don’t know I m suffering.

In my building the tenants and I signed a petition and went forward to the building haris, he told call the kuwaiti, when we called the Kuwaiti, he said pay the rent or else we will face legal implications.

Now when he said legal implications, all the tenants being expats have chickened out.

Not sure how to go forward

It’s all goodwill based.
Some building owners reduced the rent while most have to pay the full rent. If you have not received any information, then that basically means you have to pay the whole amount.

We had to pay full and we probably will keep paying full.

We initially inquired from the Haris if there could be any waive or at least any discount but was told to write to the owner. The building tenants gathered, wrote an inquiry and signed but was warned by the owner not to ever gather and instead speak to him individually. We complied only to be told that if we have no money to pay the rent, he advised us rudely to look for somewhere else to stay instead.

In our current crisis, no compassion, worse than greed, they far exceed all those. We don’t know how else to term this.

Yeah, but that way of thinking is also selfish. Just because the landlord is Kuwaiti doesn’t mean he’s a gazillionaire. The landlord might have other businesses hemorrhaging money at the moment because they’re shut down and he probably has salaries he needs to pay. If his only current source of income is the rents he gets he’s not going to want to waiver them. If he doesn’t get the rent money he might have to fire people so you end up winning, but someone else ends up losing.

Not about selfish thinking because we did think about that too.

But let’s say that’s his current situation, we tenants are suffering greatly and trying to come up with the finances to pay in full just so he could live above average.

We did appeal in many ways, from asking for a waive, compromising because every cent shaved off the dues can help us in other expense, to even asking if rent could be postponed promising we’d still pay in full but distributed equally in the coming months only to be told to face legal action or leave if we can’t pay.

Guess it’s all about the goodwill. For all we know, regardless, WE ALL are tackling this crisis TOGETHER. And like you said, someone will eventually end up losing but I hope it doesn’t always have to be that way, hoping the current state we’re in brings us all together regardless of your nationality. Because if our case was way different today, we all could be at a ‘somehow’ winning situation for both sides, while tomorrow might be a promising win-win.

Why are you assuming he isn’t suffering as well or that he’s living above average? Why are you assuming he doesn’t have salaries and bills to pay? We’re all in the same boat.

Well, I respect your opinion and like I said, no selfish thinking among us tenants since we had to be mindful and open-minded about everyone else’s situation, including the Haris and even the owner.

We’re not assuming he’s a gazillionaire, we don’t even know the full context of his expenses nor his net worth rendering our appeal open-ended.

Again, we left everything on the table where we are all trying to get to a medium or compromise in every little way possible only to be greeted in a heartless manner.

We did learn from this too, all we have left is asking Allah to have mercy on us while praying for them too. And like you, we don’t even want to owe them anything, not even gratitude.

Thanks for your opinion.

With all due respect Mark, we aren’t.

Our jobs are not secured by the government and we (and our families) have to leave the country in case you loose your job during these turbulent times.

We aren’t getting free food and aren’t being quarantined in chalets in Khiran. I’ve seen some terrible videos of men being quarantined in what looks like a large hangar and its serving as an excellent motivator to stay home.

Look, the citizens of this country have a right to the resources but to say that we are all in the same boat is simply untrue.

Your assumption is every Kuwaiti is a government employee when there are many Kuwaitis who aren’t and just like us, are trying to run a business which at the moment is impossible.

A lot of people are clearly really looking at this just from just their perspective and generalizing about the other side just like you did now.

I’ve lived in Kuwait for too long to believe that we are in the same boat. My perspective and generalizations stem from this fact.

To think that I was referring to every Kuwaiti or expat is incorrect. It should be obvious that I was referring to the majority.

Anyway, this isn’t the time for this conversation. I wish everyone (yourself included) good health.

Well assuming he has to ask for the rent to pay the salaries of the those operating in his other businesses is also assuming the tenants will be getting their salary from the business from which they operate.

Unless of course its to come out of their savings, in which case, its workers paying other workers…

Not sure what your agenda here is Mark, but clearly a landlord with tenants will be better off than his tenants. Kuwaiti or not, and pretty much the world over.

Our building landlord has been accomodating during this time of crisis.

His son personally called every tenant and informed us that he has waived off 50% of the rent for the month of April. Helpful for a lot of us indeed!

My building tenants signed a letter of exempting submitted to the building mandoob but he didn’t reply yet. What should we do.

I believe it largely depends on the tenant’s occupation and income, and of course, goodwill from the landlord at the end. Most waivers going around in social media are for low-income expats. So if you work for the government or large company (and you have several cars in your garage, and you’re single), don’t expect the landlord to waive anything; in fact, you shouldn’t be asking for a waiver because you’re still getting a full salary.

If you’re talking about me I didn’t ask my landlord for a waiver, I actually want to pay my rent because I don’t like owing anybody anything.

I think that’s the right attitude. We weren’t planning to ask for a reduction/ waiver. But the landlord sent us a message offering 30% reduction. It was impolite to refuse.

I live in Salmiya and nearly all the tenants in my building are salaried employees. Still everyone signed a petition to the landlord to waive off the rent. I find this very greedy and opportunist. How has anyone been affected to not be able to pay the rent?
I think this waiving off rent gesture should be on case to case basis for people who have been affected.

How do you know they have not been affected? Just because they are salaried employees doesn’t mean they are getting salaries? Many have been asked to stay at home with unpaid leaves. Don’t think everyone has a large saving in their bank account, many people live paycheck to paycheck.

Exactly my point. Let those ‘many people’ who like paycheck to paycheck be the ones benefit from this waiver, and not everyone. If other greedy and selfish people jump onto this waiver fray, then there is greater chance that the genuinely needy ones will miss out.

And by the way, I have been living in this building for many years and know many of the neighbors who signed the petition. Most of them are in comfortable jobs and certainly not living paycheck to paycheck. If you remit back every penny in your salary to your home country and dont have any bank balance in Kuwait, that doesnt make you needy and living paycheck to paycheck

Regardless .. high or low wage.. since its is not mandatory or enforced by the government its up to the land lord or the company to find it in them to give a waiver , a discount or whatever they feel.

In the end they are either independent business men or a business partnership or group. The end of the day the bottom line and making a profit is what matters to them.

If they are willing to take a hit then they will do it, if not they are well within their legal rights to ask for the full rent.

BTW full disclosure .. all the tenants in my building wrote a letter to the landlord to ask for a discount if not a complete waiver for April and May, it was out right rejected and we all received a letter similar to the one shown in the post. Only difference is it started with .. Dear Tenant we do understand that the current situation in the country has caused undue stress to all of you and we do sympathize with your current situation however, as a business organization we are bound by our commitments to our partners..blah blah blah and ended with exactly the same last 3 lines as written in the letter shown in the post.

I paid the rent in full for April so did my two neighbors on the same floor. Some have held out hoping to hear from the government. The custodian has warned them that they have 72 hours after the due date which is tomorrow to pay or else face legal action.

I am one of the Kuwaiti who has a business that is closed and i have to pay rent ,salaries….I am able to do it for March and April but not more than this.What will happen….I have no idea.Probably the owner of the place will tell me to leave and the Mosal will put me in jail for not paying salaries.
In the same time I am living in a building and I pay rent.The landlord said we should pay full rent.At least you as employees you stay home and get full salaries.So you can pay the flat rent.
But me i have to pay everything or else I will lose my business and face legal consequences.

I am happy you are still taking into account, paying your staff salaries.

I am an expat on a salary. I have a dependent wife and an infant. My company has decided to cut my salary by half and is expecting me to keep working from home. my rent hasnt been reduced or cut off. my car installment isnt waived off or discount. now after the deduction, i cant afford anything.

today the owners of the company are slicing off employee salaries for the sustenance of their business. tomorrow the business will sustain and the employees who sacrifised will be back in the company and work to bring the company back up. but who in the end will benefit after all this sacrifices. the owner and his family.

Companies are reluctant to terminate employees because they fear that they will not be able to hire employees who have experience in their business or are scared that these employees would go to their competitors or even more can’t afford to pay their 3 months salary and indemnity.
Right now, the landlords are thinking about their safe side, business owners are thinking about their safe side. But tentant who are majority expats arent really having any options.

Legal systems are shut, so the landlord threatens, business owners force employees to stay home without pay or unlawfully reduce salaries.

how would you conclude now

As has already been mentioned, reducing rent, delaying it, or waiving it altogether is entirely down to the discretion of the landlord, and it is unlikely that anything like this will be imposed by the government. That being said, there is the very serious issue that many people will have seen their wages cut, been put on unpaid leave or worse, then, how can these people continue to meet rent repayments? I think landlords who are benefitting from the break in mortgage repayments (across some banks, right, if not all?) should pass this down, especially to tenants normally reliable in meeting payments but currently struggling. Wishful thinking, I know! If they want to penalise them buy turfing them out on the street then they run the risk of not getting new tenants easily for some time to come.

We (14 apts) submitted a letter to the landlord in March asking to pay half of the rent. I actually found her (Kuwaiti owner) one day and asked her, she seemed confused and was like ‘I don’t know’ in the end we had to pay the full amount as all are expats and no one wants trouble. I was also told that she deliberately rented to people who get their salaries from govt jobs so that they are guaranteed salary no matter what.

The lawyer of a Syrian neighbor also said she has not registered this house as a commercial building so there’s no way of anyone having their CID on this location. We were unaware that we could’t have phone lines either before we moved in. Everyone thought there were only 6 flats but today there are 14, 3 make shift flats on the roof, the dwaniya and the old kitchen turned into 3 more. I was also told I couldn’t have an OSN satellite but finally I was allowed to have it.

I was holding out but when I asked my neighbor he said everyone already paid the full rent. Private landlords are the worst as they want to take every fil they can get.

Dude whats the matter like if all are govt employees and getting paid?! You are definitely getting an income so why should the owner not get paid if you aren’t affected at all.

The other stuff about the location and phone lines is shitty situation no q’s about that.

I did not ask for any reduction but I got a pleasant surprise when my landlord voluntarily waived this month’s rent.

I think it should be decided by the landlord on case by case basis. If you can provide proof you have been laid off, your rent can be waived. But if you are still working and receiving a salary, why wouldnt you continue paying rent? The landlord still has financial obligations as well since a lot of rentals also include utilities/electricity, in addition to any financing for construction or purchase of the building, salaries of the security(harris), maintenance, etc.

Rent waiving is becoming more common in the US now because of significant lay offs. More than 8 million new unemployments were filed since March.

Now in terms of businesses, yes many local businesses are affected by this severely therefore i do agree with rent waiving, reductions, etc.

I think the better question to ask is whether people are getting their salaries cut. Referring to people who don’t have their own business (AKA non cafe/restaurant owners).

Im really intrigued to see how this varies… I know that govt jobs didn’t cut salaries despite giving a complete holiday, and someone who works privately mentioned it was cut in half

I think it would be sensible to reduce rent to those who got pay cuts, as long as they show full proof ofc.

You all are winners in some sort.

We just got our electricity cut down by the landlord.

Pay Rent Get Electricity

Nice discussion topic.

Can anybody help me with an arabic request letter to Kuwaiti requesting to consider the rent reduction.

Would appreciate if anyone can forward the same to my whatsapp 50082400.

Thanks in advance.

You guys are funny, if you’re all getting paid in full… How could you ask for a discount or a waiver?

What is shocking me is how you people are trying to justify your actions and taking advantage of a situation.

You should all be ashamed of yourselves.

no one is saying that they dont intend to pay if they are getting paid. people are worried about the uncertain future. companies are making their employees aware that they will see salary cuts in the month of april. people need to keep reserves to make sure they and their families can survive.

dont you think certain concession is due for people who are afraid that after their salaries are deducted in april, they wont be able to afford basic necessities, forget rent

I would advise you to get that in writing and not just a phone call, two months without pay gives legal right to have you evicted. Reminds me of an old scam where they tell you the owner just had a boy and is waiving off the rent for the month, next month the whole building is cleared

I think those reading your blog will be of certain socioeconomic level and they wont be having a problem paying the rent. The issue is with those minor workers with families whom have lost their payslip and suffering to have a living now. alot of site had posted videos of people urging govmnts to let their families fly back home since thet cant feed them.

True most of the time but this post, for example, went viral yesterday on facebook and reached over 100,000 people. So I think the poll result is pretty accurate. It’s also why I posted my post this morning asking if people got their salaries or not. Hoping to get an idea of the percentage of people let go which at this moment based on the poll doesn’t seem to be a lot.

Anyone staying in Ream apartments?
Our building belongs to Ministry of Awqaf under Ream Asset Management co.
But they didn’t reduce any amount in April. I don’t know about the May rent.

k-man: agenda? Just because you disagree with what I say doesn’t mean I have an agenda. You for example are generalizing, not only are you generalizing, but you’re also stereotyping. Just because the landlord is Kuwaiti doesn’t mean he doesn’t have financial problems. I’m highlighting the fact that not all landlords can waive the rent just because of the coronavirus. Especially since majority of the people are still getting salaries so whats the purpose of waiving the rents? I think a lot of people are just trying to get a rent freebie this month not because they need it, but because they’re trying their luck to see if they can. Of course this doesn’t apply to everyone, but just stating another point of view.

i know of some people too who are looking forward for the waiver as a freebie. but then there are some who havent got their salaries, and some who have been informed that next month they wont get their full salary. and this makes them worried that if they pay this months rent, they will have nothing for next month.

Yes ,,last month March 30th because still got salary,,,but I don’t in this coming of April to last if still we can get ..we just hoping and we don’t have idea.,this month compare to last month we have 15days working that’s y we get salary

The landlord left a stern message saying, everyone has to pay full rent or else they have to vacate the house.
He has no mercy or understanding whatsoever.
He just care about the money only.
Salmiya Block 10

i live here in mahboula block 2 street 221 some of buildings here they pay a half rent but in the building where i live still im paying full so it means its up to the owner of the building..i hope the kuwait goverment made some actions and notices that as for the pandemic lockdown reduce the rent into half of the amount..

how about bringing the legal impications in to picture

1. they can’t take legal action at this stage because all the ministries are closed and trust me if they had the option of going legal.. they will not call you again and again for rent
2. they can’t cut of your water and electricity because if they don’t have permission paper to do it , you can call the police and they will get in big trouble
3. they can not go to police station because police will just direct them to relevant authorities
4. max. they can do is THREAT you… which means bringing in some police or some 7′ person to pressurize you – in this case tell them to wait, close the door.. call the police and tell them there are people on your door who are threatening you ..
just keep one thing in mind, you are not saying you don’t want to pay.. the point is, you don’t have money to pay.. big difference (keep this imp point in mind)

Rent should reduce atleast 50 % because employees r not getting full payment.
How they can pay full rent.
They have families expense is more
some people are unemployed and some are not getting salary also.
atleast on this ramadan time show mercy on us.

I’m only asking for a reduction not a waiver of the whole rent. Even though I know and everybody and their mamma’s know that Kuwaitis can afford it. It’s not like it’s for the whole year. It’s just two or three months.

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