If you can’t pay your rent and are worrying about eviction, you should know your housing rights during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lynnette explains your options in this video.
Transcription
Lynnette Khalfani Cox: If you’ve been stressing out about making your rent or your mortgage payments during the coronavirus crisis, I want to help ease your fears a little bit.
Recently, the federal government announced a moratorium, or a ban, on all evictions and foreclosures. This measure was put forth through HUD, the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
They basically ordered the two biggest government sponsored entities in the world of housing finance, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to halt all kinds of evictions or foreclosures for anything that was tied to a government based loan, like an FHA loan. FHA is the Federal Housing Administration.
Again, this is really good news for anybody out there, and there’s about eight million borrowers who do have mortgages that are tied to the federal government. This is good news for those of you who might have been worried about that.
Read:Getting Paid Sick Leave During the COVID-19 Outbreak
Even if you don’t have a mortgage at all, I want you to know your rights as it pertains to you being a renter. A lot of cities and states around the country have put in place shelter in place or lockdowns. Under those guidelines, in essence, they’ve told landlords, property owners, lenders, etc. that they cannot evict anybody for at least 60 days while we’re dealing with this coronavirus crisis.
If you’re worried about your housing, reach out if you need to talk to your landlord. Make arrangements. See what’s necessary that you need to do. Also, know your rights, whether you’re a renter or a homeowner.
