Yesterday, the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak announced a three-month mortgage payment holiday to those struggling to pay as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, following the announcement, many people who live in rented accommodation questioned what help they would be receiving given their uncertain times:
Fortunately, one renter who need not worry is comedian Amy Gledhill, who recently took to Twitter to reveal the kind gesture put to her by her landlord.
Writing to her 3,000+ followers, Amy said in a tweet yesterday: "My landlord just text me this and I'm sobbing. LANDLORDS, TAKE NOTE. If you're in a position to say this to someone, please do. When we can't rely on the government, we've got to help each other."
Attached was a screenshot of a text sent by her landlord, Chris, which read:
"Hi Amy, given everything that seems to be going on with Covid-19, I wanted to let you know that whatever happens with your work, I want you to feel secure in the house. We can work something out if your circumstances change and I hope you know we’re approachable.
"We’re living in a crazy time so take care of yourself and your family."
Chris' amazing response to his tenant was well-received on Twitter, and Amy's tweet has since been 'Liked' more than 150,000 times and retweeted over 20,000 times (as of this writing).
One person said in reply to the tweet: "Mr Landlord needs to become Sir Landlord."
Another Twitter-user who said they were a landlord themselves wrote: "I’m a landlord and made a call to my tenants last night saying the same. I wanted to let them know whatever happens with the Coronavirus they will be safe in their home and didn’t want them to worry".
And another landlady said she was inspired by Amy's tweet, and said: "Your reaction to that text inspired me to send a similar text to our tenants. I assumed they’d know we were reasonable landlords but I realised that’s not a given. It’s nice to be in a position to alleviate some of the stress."
Another reply read: "That's the sort of landlord, all private renting tenants, could with right now. Money isn't everything. People's lives and good health, come before anything else."
And finally, one person simply tweeted: "Chris Landlord is a bloody decent human being. Be like Chris Landlord."
Hopefully, renters everywhere will soon feel the same reprieve as mortgage payers.
As of the most recent situation report from the World Health Organization, there has been 179,112 confirmed cases of COVID-19 around the world, and 7,426 deaths. These numbers are increasing every hour.
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