The Lockdown Diary - Day 5

Published: 06/04/2020 By Patrick Henry

My inbox does not make for the most positive read today. The few tenants that we have who are students have all asked to be released from their contracts as soon as possible. One group of international students have already arranged their flight back home (their flight is due to depart tomorrow), it felt as though we are experiencing a coordinated exodus of London. I had already put together an “at-risk” list of tenants, who I felt would be most likely to leave if schools, leisure facilities and shops were to be closed, but I was surprised that so many would contact us with their issues in such a short period of time.


It is one thing to be surprised by the speed that something that you accounted for takes place, but it is something else altogether to be shocked by something that you didn’t expect at all. This shock came in the form of some of our landlords. The same landlords that many criticise for their “sky-high rental prices”, were now offering rent reductions to tenants without any questions being asked. To top things off, we even had a nervous set of tenants who were due to move into an empty property in a couple of days. They were so nervous about moving in that they asked if they could be released from their contract. The landlady not only released them from their contract but then offered the property – free of charge – to NHS staff!