Commercial Landlord Hardship Fund & Rent Relief

The NSW Government has introduced grants for small landlords who have reduced rent for their tenants affected by the COVID-19 lockdown. The Commercial Landlord Hardship Fund provides grants of up to $3,000.00 per month for each commercial or retail lease for small landlords who are experiencing hardships as a result of reducing rent for their tenants.

Here is a very short summary of the eligibility criteria for this grant for landlords:

• Be a landowner or trustee with total taxable landholding less than $5M;
• Have not claimed land tax relief for the relevant property between 1 July 2021 and 31 December 2021;
• Have gross rental income as their primary source of income for the 2019-20 financial year;
• Landowner of property for which application is made;
• Be the landowner of NSW property subject to the Retail and other commercial leases (COVID-19) Regulation 2021;
• Be a landlord with a current lease agreement providing rent relief to tenants from 13 July 21 that will not be claimed as 2021 land tax relief; and
• Attest that providing rent relief to the tenant may cause financial hardship.

Rent relief is available for tenants with a turnover of up to $50 million who qualify for the COVID-19 Microbusiness grant, COVID-19 Business Grant or JobSaver Payment.

It is important that you talk to your tenants and negotiations should continue around relief that should be offered in line with Retail and Other Commercial Leases (COVID-19) Regulation 2021. This will continue until the end of the current specified timeframe (13 July 2021 to 13 January 2022).

If you are a landlord or tenant and you want to know more about rent relief or the grants available to you, please get in touch with us.

For further information on the Commercial Landlord Hardship Fund and to apply through Service NSW, click here.

– Catherine Stojcevska
Posted 13.09.2021