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My sister manages a large portfolio of properties in Virginia and North Carolina in her role as a director at a medium-sized property management firm.

The reality for her company, and many landlords, is that it was extremely easy for a deadbeat tenant to stop paying rent. They simply printed out the form, filled it out (it was essentially a 1 page form), and they could immediately stop paying rent and not be subject to eviction. No verification was needed. City workers who were definitely still employed according to public records were doing this on 3 of her properties when they did an audit.

Conversely, the programs that would reimburse landlords required far more rigorous documentation, AND ACTION FROM THE TENANT. That last part was the killer. The deadbeats simply had no interest or motivation to fill out paperwork that allowed the landlord to get reimbursed.

I know that this is anecdotal, but my sister is also an elected representative of an industry group that represents property management companies. Her group did extensive surveys and analytics, and concluded that in the state of Virginia, the problem was widespread, and her company's experience was actually a bit better than most of the other member companies.

She would call me to vent quite a bit. She was furious at how "thoughtless" the original implementation of the moratorium was under the Trump administration. She thought for sure that Biden would come in, see it as a Trump artifact, and revise it in a careful way. This didn't happen, and he instead extended it twice. It was extremely detrimental to their business, but more importantly, to any and all new tenants, as well as existing tenants. New tenants had to pay far higher rents. Her company had to cover the losses from the deadbeats, and additionally, had to "price in" the risk of a new tenant suddenly filing the moratorium form and ceasing to pay rent.

It never ceases to amaze me how bureaucracies will double down on policies while ignoring the unintended consequences they produce.

Yup, the programs could have been better implemented, and requiring action from the tenant (presumably to prevent landlords from claiming 'unpaid' rent on empty units) supposes more cooperation between tenants and landlord than is reasonable to expect.

The deadbeat tenants don't really escape their liabilities though. They've gone for so many months not paying and not pursuing aid. So when they're evicted, eventually, they owe so many months back rent to the landlord. I'm sure some will escape through bankruptcy, expatriation, new aid, etc, and that the annoyance (if not the cost) of pursuing the rest will be substantial. But anyone that actually realized a financial gain at the landlords expense through is going to face liens, garnishment, and seizures until they're square. If there really are tons of these people, it would seem like a good time to be in the collections business.

> Apparently there was at least (if not more than) the usual level of misappropriation of those subsidies, so complaints from landlords abound.

For the most part, we saw landlords REFUSING these subsidies and refusing to help tenants get them - https://newrepublic.com/article/163840/erap-cash-tenants-not...