The Government presented the Commercial Rent (Coronavirus) Bill to Parliament on 9 November 2021. This sets out the proposed law for an arbitration scheme to determine rent relief for business tenant's rent arrears accrued during the Coronavirus pandemic. It is a far-reaching proposal that will dramatically impact the position of landlords and tenants. Whilst the full impact is still being digested, the scheme looks quite tenant friendly in terms of the time period of arrears that can benefit from the relief and the criteria arbitrators will apply. The law's impact will however be limited to those businesses that legally had to close for at least part of the pandemic (i.e. leisure, hospitality and non-essential retail tenants).
Please click on the link below for further analysis on the proposed law. This analysis reflects the proposed law as it would apply to England (there are slightly different provisions for Wales, though the substance is largely the same).
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