COVID-19 Ten­an­cy Update

On 23 Sep­tem­ber 2020, the NSW Gov­ern­ment announced the Retail and oth­er Com­mer­cial Leas­es (COVID-19) Reg­u­la­tion (Reg­u­la­tion) will be extend­ed until 31 Decem­ber 2020.

The Reg­u­la­tion, which was set to expire on 25 Octo­ber 2020, gives effect to the Nation­al Cab­i­net Manda­to­ry Code of Con­duct – SME Com­mer­cial Leas­ing Prin­ci­ples Dur­ing COVID19. A sum­ma­ry of the Reg­u­la­tion pub­lished by Swaab’s Prop­er­ty Team can be accessed here: https://​www​.swaab​.com​.au/​n​e​w​s​/​c​o​v​i​d​-​1​9​-​r​e​t​a​i​l​-​a​n​d​-​o​t​h​e​r​-​c​o​m​m​e​r​c​i​a​l​-​l​e​a​s​e​s​-​c​o​v​i​d​-​1​9​-​r​e​g​u​l​a​t​i​o​n​-2020.

The cen­tral fea­ture of the Reg­u­la­tion is the pro­por­tion­al­i­ty prin­ci­ple of rent relief to ten­ants accord­ing to turnover decline, and this applies for both retail leas­es and com­mer­cial leas­es. This is tar­get­ed at small to medi­um busi­ness­es, as the Reg­u­la­tion applies to a ten­ant that qual­i­fies for the Job-Keep­er scheme and has a turnover of less than $50 million.

Ten­ants who pre­vi­ous­ly enjoyed rent relief under the Reg­u­la­tion can seek fur­ther rent relief for the 25 Octo­ber to 31 Decem­ber peri­od, but they will first be required to re-estab­lish their eli­gi­bil­i­ty. Also, a Ten­ant who did not qual­i­fy for relief up to 25 Octo­ber is able to qual­i­fy if the Ten­ant meets the eli­gi­bil­i­ty cri­te­ria dur­ing the extend­ed period. 

Land­lords will also be able to receive up to 25 per cent land tax con­ces­sion where they pro­vide addi­tion­al rent relief to com­mer­cial and res­i­den­tial ten­ants suf­fer­ing finan­cial hard­ship dur­ing this Octo­ber-Decem­ber peri­od. This land tax con­ces­sion is in addi­tion to the con­ces­sion already pro­vid­ed to Land­lords who reduced rent between April-Sep­tem­ber this year.

For more infor­ma­tion about the Reg­u­la­tion and this land tax con­ces­sion, vis­it https://​www​.ser​vice​.nsw​.gov​.au/​c​a​m​p​a​i​g​n​/​c​o​v​i​d​-​1​9​-​h​e​l​p​-​s​m​a​l​l​-​b​u​s​i​n​e​s​s​e​s​/​c​o​m​m​e​r​c​i​a​l​-​l​e​a​s​e​-​s​u​pport.

We will pro­vide any fur­ther updates to the Reg­u­la­tion as they become available. 

Oth­er Swaab publications

For more of our COVID-19 legal alerts, updates and pub­li­ca­tions please click here . Alter­na­tive­ly call us on +61 2 9233 5544. 

Kind regards,

The Swaab prop­er­ty team