After much speculation the government announced on 16 September that it will be extending protections that have been afforded to commercial tenants as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. What are the current protections? Commercial tenants currently benefit from a number of COVID-19 related protections including: a temporary prohibition on landlords forfeiting commercial leases as
Tag Archives: COVID-19
UK COVID-19: Back to the workplace – stay alert
Boris Johnson has now changed the focus from staying at home to staying alert. What does this mean for landlords who need to create a COVID-safe environment? How does this look in practice? And who pays? It will be a long time before the lockdown is fully lifted, but the government’s ambition is for some
UK COVID-19: Can the temporary stay on possession proceedings be lifted?
The Court of Appeal says (almost definitely) no We have previously blogged about the 90-day stay of all possession proceedings until the end of June, which was brought into force by the courts on 27 March 2020 by the new practice direction PD 51Z. Earlier this week, in the case of Arkin v Marshall, the Court
UK COVID-19: Further commercial tenant protections announced by the government
Yesterday, the government announced further protection for the “UK high street from aggressive rent collection”. This protection takes the form of further restrictions on a landlord’s ability to pursue certain enforcement action against a tenant: in particular, serving statutory demands and presenting winding up petitions for non-payment of rent. These protections build upon the temporary
COVID-19 UK: Virtual planning committee meetings are no longer a remote possibility
The government has finally taken the steps needed to start bringing the planning system into the 21st Century, enabling “remote committee meetings” for the first time, in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Certain types of planning applications must be determined by a local planning authority’s planning committee, but to date the meetings of these committees
UK COVID-19: Update on protection from forfeiture for commercial tenants
Avid readers will have seen our previous blog on the government’s proposals to protect commercial tenants from the risk of forfeiture for non-payment of rent, as a result of COVID-19. The proposals were incorporated into section 82 of the Coronavirus Act 2020 (the Act), which came into force on 25 March 2020. In particular, section
COVID-19 UK: The impact on rent review
It will not have escaped the attention of anyone in the real estate industry that today is the March quarter day. For many landlords and occupiers, the immediate focus will be on rent payments due today and the media are already reporting that large numbers of retailers are expected to withhold rent to ease cashflow
UK COVID-19: Commercial tenants to be given three months’ protection from forfeiture
Yesterday, as well as locking down the country, the government published critical amendments to the emergency Coronavirus Bill protecting commercial tenants from the risk of forfeiture until the end of June 2020. The Bill, together with these amendments, has now been approved by the House of Commons and is, today, going before the House of
COVID-19 in the UK: emergency legislation for renters
The government has confirmed it will bring forward emergency legislation to protect residential tenants from eviction. Following the Budget which announced mortgage “holidays” for those who own their homes, the government has been urged to assist private renters impacted by COVID-19. Under the emergency legislation landlords will be unable to start proceedings to obtain possession
You can’t just wash your hands of it… A landlord and tenant’s guide to COVID-19 in the UK
As hand gels and toilet paper fly off the shelves and children across the world cross their fingers for school closures, the COVID-19 strain of coronavirus has taken over the news. The outbreak has now been declared as a pandemic and is showing few signs of slowing. But what does the virus mean for commercial landlords