‘If you can’t pay your rent then talk to your landlord’

While many of the Bailiwick’s office workers have been able to continue working from home on computers, that has not been the case for workers such as cleaners and labourers, along with shop staff in retail businesses categorised as non-essential, and also hospitality employees.

The support offered for businesses who want to retain their staff is less generous in Guernsey compared to the UK.

The States has offered to pay furloughed employees 80% of the local minimum wage with employers making up the remaining 20%.

In the UK, the chancellor has promised to pay 80% of wages up to a maximum of £2,500 per person before tax.

Here in Guernsey the local deal would give someone £1,192 for four weeks, and private rents in the island start at about £800 per month for a small flat.

Rooms in multi-occupancy homes are cheaper; a single room is approximately £750 per month.

Deputy Gavin St Pier, the chair of the Civil Contingencies Authority, has acknowledged there could be problems for renters, and wants people to have open communication.

‘Do understand that your landlords themselves may be under financial pressure, so it really is a time for us to be talking openly with each other in relation to these issues and showing as much compassion and flexibility as we can towards each other.’

The chair of the Guernsey Private Residential Landlords Association, Jeff Guilbert, agreed that communication was vital, and called on everyone to do the right thing at this difficult time.

‘First of all, as Deputy Gavin St Pier says, we’re all in this together, an empty house is no good for the landlord, so landlords and tenants need each other.

‘The problem we could have in the coming weeks is the tenant’s ability to pay the rent. If you find yourself in that position as a tenant and you are going to struggle, please, please, please talk to your landlord as soon as possible.

‘It may be possible to work out that you can pay some of the rent but not all of it, and the portion you can’t pay you may be able to work out a payment plan over the life of the rest of your tenancy.

‘I have some houses in multiple occupation, and there are lots of cleaners at home and it’s not their fault the government has banned them from working. They don’t have much reserves so they will struggle to find the rent, and they’ve already told me that, which is upfront and I expected it.

‘I’m hoping soon that the payments that their companies may have applied for are passed onto them, and if that’s the case then we can probably work something out.

‘Maybe I can reduce the rent a little bit. We’re not all ogres and we have to play it by ear because it’s a shifting scenario.’

While Deputy St Pier has called for flexibility and compassion on this issue, his team has stopped short of tough legal restrictions such as a moratorium on evictions, which have been drawn up by some jurisdictions.