There was an article a saw a few weeks ago about some guys based out of Oakland (maybe someone else can find it) who has accumulated 5 figures worth of rental debt. It talks about how he had just moved into an expensive place at the beginning of the pandemic, got laid off, then couldn’t pay for the whole year.
IIRC, he eventually moved, but still couldn’t pay rent and started accumulating even more rent debt there. I can’t imagine who would rent an apartment to that guy.
I know the exact article you mentioned. The real story is actually more nuanced. The guy off course got laid off and could no longer afford the rent. But he racked up rent also because even if he moved earlier, his contract would have made him pay a ton of fines to even get out of it. So he decided to stay.
Yeah it’s not like it was really that much of his fault or anything (though I found it a bit fishy why he couldn’t get another job). Everyone’s mentality up until ~September was “oh just another month or two then everything will be back to normal”.
But my point is how could you expect landlords to rent to anyone without a very stable income? They could be out tens of thousands of dollars.
Well in this case, the landlord can simply allow the tenant to break the lease without such a harsh penalty, rather than playing this game which encourages people to use the law against them.
> though I found it a bit fishy why he couldn’t get another job
What line of work was he in? If he lost his job during the pandemic, is it possible there simply were very few jobs available that he was qualified for?
IIRC, he eventually moved, but still couldn’t pay rent and started accumulating even more rent debt there. I can’t imagine who would rent an apartment to that guy.