Landlords shouldn’t be allowed to evict tenants who can’t pay rent due to COVID-19 — Walwyn
Government is being encouraged to implement an interim policy that would prevent landlords from evicting tenants who are not able to meet their rent obligations because of the COVID-19 pandemic that has left several persons unemployed in the BVI.
This was one of multiple recommendations that former legislator Myron Walwyn proposed in a commentary posted on his Facebook page on Wednesday, April 1.
While noting that he takes “no credit” for the suggestions, the former legislator also proposed that a three-month moratorium be placed on Customs duties for essential businesses, “with the proviso that the cost savings be passed to the consumer”.
Incentive to discourage lay-offs
Walwyn also advocated for the creation of other incentives “to encourage businesses not to lay off their workers”, and for government to consider offering a Social Security Board ‘unemployment stipend’ for at least three months.
“Interest-free or very low-interest loans for existing micro and small businesses should be established. This could be done through the National Bank of the Virgin Islands with the requisite stipulations,” Walwyn said.
Commendations to government
Continuing on the subject of banks, the former legislator added: “A loan payment moratorium (personal and business) should be put in place for a minimum period of three months and I commend some banks in the BVI who have already committed to deferring loans.”
Walwyn also commended the VIP government for promising to establish an economic stimulus package to assist vulnerable residents.
Attached is the document containing Walwyn’s full commentary as posted on his Facebook page:
Copyright 2024 BVI News, Media Expressions Limited. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.
Trying to win back some people huh…why dont you offer people free meals at your restaurant then???
@Bald eagle, can you please sit for a moment and try to think if your brain cells is working the correct way. This is not about trying to win back anyone. Myron is correct. In NYC and other States, landlords were issued a order to put a freeze on rent collections and evictions until further notice. Any landlord violate this order, they will be looking at thousands of dollars in fines.
Whats happening in NYC is not happening in the BVI though.
FIRST OF ALL HERE IS NOT PART OF THE US SECOND THE RATES IN THE US ARE MUCH LOWER THAN HERE. WHERE WAS THIS MAN WHEN WE LANDLORDS WERE BEGGING FOR HELP WHEN THE INSURANCE COMPANIES RIP US OFF AFTER THE HURRICANES WE ARE PAYING DOUBLE FOR INSURANCE WE HAVE NO ONE TO LEAN ON SOME OF US HAD PROBLEM WITH THE FLOOD YOU KNOW WHO THEY HELP THIER CRONIES .I AM A SINGLE PARENT TRYING TO KEEP A ROOF OVER MY CHILDREN DEADS AND COLLECT A FEW DOLLARS TO HELP ME OUT SO I MUST GO UNDER TO PLESAE THESE PEOPLE WHO WENT MISSSING AFTER THE HURRICANES WHATI WANT TO SAY I CANNOT.BUT I CAN SAY THIS I HAVE BILLS LIKE EVERYONE.
what rates are you talking about that a lower in the US?
Isn’t it time for Social Security to step in here. We pay a percentage of our salaries EVERY MONTH FOR YEARS.
There should be a better return from this investment especially in times like this.
Especially us males who dont get bck anything until we’re 65 or were badly injured. Smdh.
Ok fair enough but this should go into effect from April, person should be able to pay the April rent cause nothing started to happened until March and they were paid for the month of March so pay your April Rent.. Then let the rest fall as may cause nobody working for April as yet..
You’re correct about NYC BUT you also failed to mentioned that the banks are also working with mortgage holders.
You can’t expect landlords who have mortgages to pay the banks as normal and receive nothing from rent .
This is not the Time for this nonsense.
@Bald Eagel
That doesn’t even make sense in these times, fool!
What did your government did after Irma about that??
EXACTLY!! But,those who were kissing his behind and got what they wanted…will contine to kiss his behind and praise him.
None sense.! Many have not received a thing from that man,, nor do they kiss his behind.
Most to all of his indicated support comes from those that acknowledges his itellectual gifts, stamina and desire to help the masses.
Butof course s,all minders are not vibrating on that higher level.
After Irma, cost of living skyrocketed, something alot of people are still struggling with today. Not everyone work for so much money.
However, these policies are very much needed during this crisis. Thank you for the suggestions.
As you have stated, “cost of living skyrocketed after Irma.”
Be hereto informed, cost of living has and will continue rto skyrocket during and after corona-19 also.
Therefore, demand price gouging legislation from the VIP government. Only such will bring some brakes to the immorality of that unfair and expolitative,unconscienable business practice.
However, unless there is a grass roots of effective protest, there will be no relief for the masses relative to this issue.
Government politicians have to much vested interest in business and the business community, and all of them are addicted to money and are money hounds.
As such, the masses will not see any such legislation in their favor from this government.
Perhaps the next one that intends to vye for governance position in the next election should consider entering the following into their/its manifesto:
1) Price controls
2) Price gouging/fixing laws
3) Lemon laws.
4) Modest insurance laws.
5) Modest medical pricing laws.
6) Livable wage law.
7) Victimization laws that correct economic forfeiture and harm.
These are all issues that will require bold, brave determined leadership to correct. That type of leadership is what is required to correct the trajectory of immense suffering amongst the majority, and from expanding the priviledge ruling class. That leadership is not available today.
Exactly. Your Gov’t was a disgrace after Irma!
You all need to stop. The current government is in a way better position with this Pandemic than previous government did with IRMA. This is because this government has time to plan and learn from other jurisdictions. The previous government did not have this advantage.
On the other hand, BVI is an extremely vulnerable economy. The government might win the war to provide the spread of the virus in the BVI but it is the aftermath that would be the real test.
What Myron is suggesting is helpful tips to prevent a complete economic decline. But we are too caught up in our hatred to see the value of the message.
GOOD GOING MYRON!!!!
Keep in mind that your landlords must make mortgage payments, hire plumbers, electricians and others to maintain the property. They don’t just sit and collect rent as income. When you defer a bank loan payment, it rolls to the end of the loan, often collecting interest obligations nearly as large as the delayed installment. Not a good deal for anyone but the bank.
the fact remains that many landlords charge way above what they need to pay their mortgages. others have long paid for their mortgages and still charge high rents and fix nothing. by the time you are through paying rent sometimes barely able to eat for the month you are not just paying all the land lords Bill’s you are also paying for his vaccation and his shopping, when you have to borrow to pay your Bills. I know of someone who lived west end the land lord had them living under all kinds of conditions and collecting 1500 every month the situation got so bad that they were in there for month inhaling raw sewage. when they complained about it they were asked to leave.the land lord had over 6 apartments the 1500 was the cheapest. the apartment was not even furnished or cleaned when the tenants moved in.
I know for a fact Scotiabank has deferred loan payments for up to 6 months and FCIB is offering the same deal. Mortgage payment seem like a non issue.
I pray you all will be OK after this ordeal, bad mind is definitely a disease.
why are you going back to Irma? don’t you see the entire world is in a serious situation? Do you have a heart and the sense to realize that the country will soon be in a serious depression? OK you will soon see the effect that may last for quite a while. England and the USA was able to help during Irma. Now they are fighting hard to help themselves.
Money or rent is not the interest now, your life is at stake have some Godliness in you and stop attacking what make sense.
that is the attitude of a good leader, that in difficult moments he will take or seek possible solutions to the people, God Bless always Honorable Walwyn
What going on with the insurance companies some people have to pay their company
wow NDP
But theres lots of tenents in arrears for months prior to the
Conrona virus so what’s do to now ??♂️??♂️
Unemployment is a tax. What Government should have looked at from since Irma was implementing this tax for unemployment. Then again we would have complained just like when NHI was implanted not NHI has become a life saver for many. I do not think that this is Social Security responsibility especially when a lot of you employers are delinquent in your social security payments for your workers. While I think Social Security can make a social donation it is not their responsibility.
So are you saying that Social Security should be just for when you turn 65 or get sick or on maternity to derive any form of benefits? What about extenuating circumstances when persons need it the most? What about after natural disasters or pandemics when persons are out of work for weeks and months?
The Premier needs to look at revisiting the Social security act to amend the provisions to include unemployment benefits as a result of natural disasters and pandemics.
Exactly how governments ruin themselves- digging cookie jars. Ss is for retirees. Unemployment insurance is needed. Ur gov burns $10k/person a year (300,000,000+). WTF money dem gone?!?!
trying hard but the cartoon said it all
Hear who talking this man who hide from the people after the 2017 hurrinces..so he think we forget???
Where are dr.smith, dr.pickering and dr.oneal in all this?
They above mentioned is more than likely holed up chilling in their beautiful homes.
You know what? Never mind because what I have to say to your dumb A**, is not going to get posted. We are all in this together, we are all in the same boat together drifting along trying to get to safety and survive. No matter how you feel about Myron, he is correct.
LOL obviously you’re one of his….*cough* guess you’ve been puckering up LOL…you’ve probably been greasing your @ $ $ for him too LMAO
Welcome back sir! You should’ve been our leader in these troubling times. I surely miss you.
MVW TO THE RESCUE….WE ARE GOING TO VOTE YOU BACK IN 2023
You and your imaginary army.
A smart person listen to great ideas and not focus on who it is coming from too much. Let sense prevail.
Placed in context, your statement is absolutely correct.
However, how then do we analyze the emotional and political intellect and intelligence of a population which places 100% value in a messenger and not the message?
For example, if the messenger is not liked, his message will never be acknowledged, studied and analyzed or be considered valid or useful, and he/she and the message will be destroyed.
On the other hand, if the messenger is liked, he/she can feed the vast majority sh*t and it will all be eaten and demand seconds will be.
Unfortunately, that is the state of past to current psychology of the greater majority of our people.
Examples of this are the treatment of and destruction, external forces not withstanding, of minds and intellects such as those of Noel, Castro and a host of others.
Hence, your statement is wise, but it also highlights a great flaw in our BVI people. Depressingly true, unfortunately. What can turn this mental malady around? Mind, emotional, intellectual, and intellignce development? Perhaps.
Meanwhile, this has been a chronic mental shortcoming of our people since post emancipation.
@ “Be Smart”. I read the input made by Mr. Walwyn. I don’t see this having anything to do with politics but very welcome. I think it was good of him to share those suggestions. As a BVIslander, I listened to the news recently and heard that St. Kitts and Jamaica (and he named others), were already rolling out money to help the people affected by closures to the workforce in varied sectors (of course to minimise the spread of the covid-19 virus). I do believe our current govt. also has plans to do the same (via the request made to the UK for such assistance), but it needs to be expedited especially because not everyone works for govt. and will continue to get paid as usual. There are persons in the construction sector, persons who were working in day cares, pre-schools and other private sector jobs, whose pay has been affected by closures resulting from covid-19…now they have to find money to buy more food (and where will money come from on a limited weekly budget?). I also commend the govt. for making arrangements to acquire the services of doctors from Cuba to assist with the care and restoration to health of those affected by the virus. The more options are made available, the more chances we have to not just pool them together, but rather to increase our chances of making a better difference in how we all fare and get through these challenging times.
When this one was in power during Irma…he did anything to help tenants??? Send help in the place!
Yeah, but now all of a sudden he come from out his “h***” (lol get it?) Anyways, he was a sore loser after the election and ran with his tail between his legs.
Don’t you think the government knows that already???? Or is Myron the only one that know this??? Should we give him an award???
I have a Mortgage to pay. And I absolutely do not want the bank’s deferred payment, it’s only means the bank will extend The Mortgage time.did it before so I know.. so I hope you all explain to the people that renting,Letting them know they still need to try and pay their rent. or How about about the government help buying food so they can pay ,especially for the landlords like us with Mortgage payments over $3500.and the amount collected from tenants are not sufficient
Nobody send u to build what yuh cant afford
So therefore dont rent what you cant afford
Thankfully Hon Fahie is the leader and NOT YOU! If you want to help, send private suggestions to the Premier but we don’t need you on no soapbox acting as if you have all the answers… YOU HAD YOUR CHANCE and YOU AND NDP FAILED THE PEOPLE OF THIS TERRITORY MISERABLY!!
the fact remains that many landlords charge way above what they need to pay their mortgages. others have long paid for their mortgages and still charge high rents and fix nothing. by the time you are through paying rent sometimes barely able to eat for the month you are not just paying all the land lords Bill’s you are also paying for his vaccation and his shopping, when you have to borrow to pay your Bills. I know of someone who lived west end the land lord had them living under all kinds of conditions and collecting 1500 every month the situation got so bad that they were in there for month inhaling raw sewage. when they complained about it they were asked to leave.the land lord had over 6 apartments the 1500 was the cheapest. the apartment was not even furnished or cleaned when the tenants moved in.
I dont want to hear anything from this man. He is like the Joker of a deck of cards. Useless and discarded
It’s obvious you don’t know anything about Mortgage smh. If I couldn’t afford it the bank would never have given the money You probably paying rent and don’t want to pay
@vip all the way …
It’s obvious you don’t know anything about Mortgage smh. If I couldn’t afford it the bank would never have given the money You Probably paying rent and don’t want to pay
Bvi worst landlord
@ vip all the Way…⬇️
It’s obvious you don’t know anything about Mortgage smh. If I couldn’t afford it the bank would never have given the money You probably paying rent and don’t want to pay
what happens some still have a slave mind yesterday the premier said that some are still thinking like when they were slaves that someone had to use a stick to subdue him to do the right thing
I wish so bad he would pay us our money he owe us … NhI and ss . But he also have a point we need help since we are not working .
Since when can government interfere in contractual relationships?
Many landlords rely on rent to barely get by.
Tenants destroy facilities and don’t look back.
Why not say FREE GROCERIES, FREE MEDICATION, FREE GASOLINE, FREE GASOLINE. oh well rent is a service upon which landlords are abused by many tenants.
What government should say is landlords should consider applying deposit to 1 month rent but tenants won’t want to hear that because too many of them want a free ride.
He could have said, partial rent or rent payment schedule, with Government helping with some of the rent (maybe 20 or 25%) for one or two months. I would even consider a discount if the tenant is in dire straits and was reliable in the past.
But yes, some tenants will want free rent and irresponsible statements like this from Walwyn will make them bolder.
Mvw is a bush lawyer bottom line
I thought Walwyn was brighter than this. Landlords will simply increase the rent after the virus risk is gone in 2 or 3 months and evict the worthless and willful tenants that way. As a leader you can’t encourage victimizing of one group at the expense of the other. You must encourage the two groups plus government to work together for an agreed solution.
Did not want to comment during these trying times in our territory, but the negative energy towards this gentleman who is only offering his thoughts of possible solutions to the many challenges being faced with within the territory (during and after), just continue to exposed the diabolical evil and wickedness by certain cliques who only intent is to keep this man down, even at their own detriment. Will they ever learn.
Keep doing what you’re doing Walwyn. Who laugh last…well, some know the rest. Pay absolutely no mind to ELFs: Extra Low Frequency Beings- in our territory. Always remember that the greatest evil on this planet is ignorance, so allow them to continue throwing stones for now. Pay no mind to satan’s circuit- with new levels come new ? ? devils.
One must be fully battle-tested to eventually move from good to political greatness. Chest-plate must be impenetrable against these worshippers of satan disguised as holy ones (most diabolical).
These ? ? and frog mouths will learn, or will be slowly boiled in their ignorance.
Not all that glitters at the moment is genuine gold. Remember even satan ? ? was once an ? angel. Most of the shine right now is gold-plated until the truth tarnishes and reveals what’s underneath. “Truth Hurts, Lies Entertain.”
Been busy completing some projects, including a certain book, so one has not been blogging. Just giving some time for this plan-demic to pass. In the meantime, allow them to entertain themselves for now; it helps them alleviate their level of stress in these difficult times in our territory and around the world. Until then, keep your head up and keep contributing how you can, moving forward. Everything happens in divine timing.
Allow this blogger, who in the know, to send the message to this circle ⭕️ of ELFs:
There are levels to multi-dimensional zence-fence intellectual- intelligence. Look at it like boxing: some are at the feather-weight level, some at the middle-weight level, and some at the heavy-weight level. You ELFs had better know your level before the next round starts. Heads-up, just know you’ll will not be dealing with any surface dweller, sharper is the sword.
When you see people hungry and desperate to get back into power after they got licks they will be very dangerous for a country.
Keep ball head out he has done enough damage
Tenants should have two months rent put away for times like this.
Every weekend u guys send home your money forgetting there are bills here where u live to be paid.
when crisis like this comes uall want landlords to be lenient .
i fully disagree.
Some tenants send all their money home and expect to live in the BVI free. When hardtimes come take some of that money back to assist yourselves here. That is what savings is about. I know some people will genuinely need assistance. To the landlords find out who is not working because of the virus and assist where you can but those who looking a free ride and can do better make them pay. Apartment are an investment just like grocery stores by their food to sell to make a profit. One must eat to live as well as they must have a place to live or be homeless. If you walk in a supermarket and walk out without paying for your groceries you will be considered a thief but you want to live in other people house that they toil hard to get for free.
Send all their money home, really? Before anything goes home they pay rent, social security, taxes, food bill, school fees, car note, tithes just to name a few before one penny goes home.
Only because you have 3 businesses thats a heffy rent ×3 causing you to come out like you care .dont tell my premier what to do he got this
Tell the banks the same thing!!!!
Do not equate the principles of the USA with the BVI. America IS the RICHEST country in the world.
Landlords/home owners still have Mortages to pay. Please Do not confuse compassion for ignorance or kindness for weakness. There is something called “A RAINY DAY”, that is why we shouldn’t eat ALL we work for or buy synthetic hair and nails then can’t afford to pay the rent.
Today is your RAINY DAY. How prepared are you?
I am a property owner and lives in the USA.
All landlords do not want empty apartments and will work with good tenants to keep them.
Tenants that think the landlord will give them a handout that the government will not are mistaken.
My mortgage,insurance,taxes,repairs and improvements are expensive.
I do not think anyone should be homeless but there are tenants that will not pay any rent if they can get away from it and then leave even if they have money.
No evictions if they pay at least half the rent, if they cannot do that than government should pay.
can you stay in a hotel for free? what is the difference