Covid 19 - Rent moratorium extended

The moratorium on the enforcement of rent arrears was dure to expire at the end of the month but as the Covid restrictions are to continue we saw yesterday the government extend the ban on evictions of commercial property tenants for nine months until 25th March 2022.

It was also announced new rules to ring-fence covid-19 commercial rent arrears.

The Treasury secretary Stephen Barclay announced plans for a binding arbitration scheme to resolve disputes between landlords and commercial tenants. Barclay said the scheme should be in place for when the eviction ban is lifted. He said the measures “strike the right balance” between protecting landlords and supporting firms most in need. But he added: “To be clear, all tenants should start to pay rent again in accordance with the terms of their lease or as otherwise agreed with their landlord as soon as restrictions are removed on their sector if they are not already doing so.”

The confirmatory document can be found here "Eviction protection extended for businesses most in need".

Also as part of the continued support from central and local government there was released today an update relating to Local Restrictions Support Grants (LRSG), Restart Grant, Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG): guidance for local authorities.

Additional Restrictions Grant guidance updated: as Step 4 of the roadmap out of restrictions has been delayed for up to 4 weeks, we have updated the guidance to account for this and extended the spending allocation deadline to 30 July 2021