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New Jersey Landlord Waives 3 Months Of Rent For Tenants

April 19, 2020

A landlord in New Jersey has waived rent payments for his tenants for three months during this Coronavirus outbreak.

David Placek owns 12 properties in Montclair and the average rent of each unit is $1,200-1,500 per month. Over the next 3 months he is forgoing more than $50,000.

"By and large we've gotten a good reception from our tenants, they're happy that we were able to do this early on and really able to show them some compassion and feelings for what they might be going through," said Placek. "We didn't ask them what financial position they're in."

All he asks of his tenants in return is that they pay it forward.

"It was more a question of why not do this for our tenants," Placek told ABC 7. "We ask them to pay it forward so if they can go out and buy take out from the restaurants or gift cards from the other small businesses or pay it forward to the local food bank we had in Montclair, N.J. called Tony's Kitchen."

Placek's act of kindness caught the attention of New Jersey Governor, Phil Murphy.

"He exemplifies the spirit we need to see right now of people stepping up to make sure others can come out of this emergency stronger," Murphy said.