Help for renters was announced by the province but BC landlords are wondering if they’ll get some relief in making their payments in the wake of COVID-19.

CEO of LandlordBC, David Hutniak, was on NL Newsday and said while renters get five hundred dollars from the Province, the rest of that has to come from somewhere so the landlords can make their payments. “You can approach your bank, they may allow you to defer some mortgage payments but there’s no free lunch here.”

“Basically you have to negotiate terms with them. There’s going to be interest, interest upon interest, it’s all retainable, it’s charged against your property”

Hutniak said with little money coming in, many landlords are feeling anxious. “This doesn’t really do much.”

“If we don’t get rent paid it’s hugely challenging to try and recoup that and so I think there’s just a sort of absence of balance here in the approach.”

Hutniak says there’s been some confusion over what the Province is calling a rent freeze.

He says it’s a freeze on rent increases and doesn’t mean you don’t have to pay your rent as some people have interpreted.