Landlord Waives Rent for 36 Tenants: ‘I Really Don’t Care About Money Now, I Care About You’

(Illustration - nega/Shutterstock)

As the global pandemic continues to rage forward, millions around the world have lost their jobs and access to basic necessities like food and groceries. Faced with such an unprecedented crisis, many have struggled with the thought of how they would manage to pay for rent.

A landlord from Canada has been hailed as generous and compassionate after he waived rent for 36 tenants for an indefinite period of time.

Chris Boyes, who owns a condo building in downtown Toronto, emailed his tenants that he understood their plight in the light of unemployment due to the CCP virus. “I really don’t care about money right now, I care about YOU,” Boyes wrote.

According to The Toronto Star, when one of Boyes’s tenants, Sarah Vanderhelm, 38, who lost her dream job as a cook due to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, received the letter, she was touched by her landlord’s gesture. Vanderhelm shared a screenshot of the mail with her brother, Dale, who then posted a tweet of the letter, which has now received over thousands of reactions.

Boyes’s message conveyed a concern for his tenants’ well-being that was impressive to them and their families. In addition to suspending rent payments for the time being, he also wrote that he would notify his tenants a month in advance whenever they needed to resume payment, noting “that won’t be for a while.”

The city of Toronto, Canada, is seen where the 2015 Pan American Games are being held, July 16, 2015. (HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP via Getty Images)

Going above and beyond freezing rent, Boyes also offered his services to tenants who were in need of help with basic necessities such as groceries and medicines. The selfless landlord wrote, “[I] will grab it for you, free of charge. You do not need to pay me back.”

Most remarkably, Boyes even suggested that those tenants who could still afford to pay their rent to hold on to the money as savings against future financial distress. “I don’t want any surprises to come for you, so for your own good, I recommend you keep it unless you absolutely want to pay it,” he added.

When Vanderhelm received the letter, she told The Toronto Star: “It made me tear up, it really did. A person we don’t really consider ‘family’ is treating his tenants like family.”

While Vanderhelm and her brother were extremely appreciative of the landlord’s actions, they are aware of how unusual his gesture is. “It’s disappointing that what Chris did is a rare occurrence,” Vanderhelm said. “It should be the other way around.”

However, Boyes doesn’t consider what he did a heroic act but just the right thing to do. “How can I possibly ask someone to pay rent when they’ve lost their job and it wasn’t their fault?” Boyes wrote in an email response to The Star.

The reason that Boyes is so sympathetic to his tenants’ situation is because he has been there before. He explained to The Star that several years prior “when I ended up losing my job, (my landlord) completely waived my rent payment for the couple months I had no income for.”

With the CCP virus outbreak resulting in many people losing their job, Boyes added, “I am now in a fortunate position to do [the same].”

Dale mentioned on his tweet thread that he wrote to Boyes thanking him for what he did for his sister and how much it meant to their family. In response, Boyes wrote back, stating: “I’m calling on the provincial and federal government to support tenants and landlords in these difficult situations.”

While his case was unique, Boyes added, “I can’t create change, I can only inspire it.”

The long and short of the current situation is that someone has to bear the brunt of the crisis. As Boyes wrote, “I would rather take a financial hit than leave a burden on the backs of my tenants.”