Rent Evasion
Public sympathy very properly goes out to persons who, under stress of war conditions, are unable to pay their rents, and, were they not protected, would be liable to prosecution. But there is evidence that many people are taking advantage of the situation to evade their rental obligations in whole or in part ; and there is danger that unless something is done to provide more equality of sacrifice, catastrophe will befall many property companies, building societies and individual owners, and loss sustained by thousands of poor persons who have shares in such undertakings. House-owners, amongst them persons who have staked their all in securing a dwelling, have already been hardly enough treated by failing to secure more than the vaguest of promises for compensation in the event of the destruction of their property by enemy attack, though such attack is directed against the whole community. To this handicap, which has made some property almost un- saleable, is added the further risk of loss of rent if the whole or a part of a house is let. If landlords are prevented from collecting rent, then the principle of equality of sacrifice de- mands that mortgagors should equally be prevented from collecting mortgage interest or foreclosing. In any case, evasion of rent must not be made easy. A debt to a landlord is just as much an honourable undertaking as a debt to a butcher or baker.
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