The Vice President of Operations for the Kelson Group says many large scale property companies are used to working with tenants from time to time when they run into financial hardship.

However, Jason Fawcett says they haven’t seen anything quite like the economic impacts caused by COVID-19.

“We did think that we should have a more formal process rather than a conversation that happened with our site staff on a regular basis. They can tell where they’re at and what they think they can do over the next few weeks and then we’re going to assess that,” he said on NL Newsday.

“You know, see what you can do right now for paying rent, and what can you do later in the month.”

Rent was due on April 1, but Fawcett says a number of people are still waiting to see what kind of assistance they’ll be getting from the provincial and federal governments.

“We understand that they don’t have all the answers and even the government is struggling with the amount of applications for assistance that’s coming in,” he said.

“We can be patient and we can work with the residents as long as they are communicating with us where they are at, and what they think they can do. We’re going to wait for them and be as patient as we can.”

Fawcett says like tenants across the province, landlords too are worried about what the economic impacts of COVID-19 will be.