Real Estate Tip of the Week - Protection from forfeiture extended to 30 September 2020

Published 24 June 2020

The government has announced that the protection from forfeiture given to relevant business tenants under s82 of the Coronavirus Act will be extended until 30 September 2020. The temporary CRAR changes are extended similarly and will now prevent CRAR unless at least 189 days’ rent is outstanding.

The Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill will also be amended to extend the moratorium on the statutory demand/winding-up route to 30 September 2020.

A voluntary Code of Practice for commercial landlords and tenants, which encourages transparency and collaboration, has also been published by the Government. The press release (which includes a link to the Code of Practice) can be found here.

Whilst further clarification of the position is to be welcomed, it will be interesting to see if the Code of Practice leads to greater transparency and collaboration between parties. It also remains to be seen whether the Code of Practice provides sufficient comfort for landlords given that compliance is voluntary, whereas tenants benefit from extended protections set out in formal legislation.