The Government have confirmed an extension to the commercial eviction moratorium. Originally due to end on 30 June, this has now been extended for an additional nine months.
Any discussions between businesses and ladlords regarding arrears (estimated in the region of £6bn) will need to go through arbitration before they go to court.
Although this extension applies to all businesses, the new measures that will be introduced by primary legislation to ensure landlord and tenant negotiation, will only cover those impacted by closures. This will mean that rent debt that was accumulated before March 2020 will be actionable as soon as the tenant protection measures are lifted.
The government have confirmed that the arbitration process will be delivered by private arbitrators in line with guidelines set out in the primary legislation, which will need to go through an approval process to prove impartiality.
Chief secretary to the Treasury Steve Barclay announced “We will introduce legislation in this parliamentary session to establish a backstop so that where commercial negotiations between tenants and landlords are not successful, tenants and landlords go into binding arbitration. Until that legislation is on the statue book, existing measures will remain in place, including extending the current moratorium to protect commercial tenants from eviction to 25 March 2022. 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.”
