After more than two months of negotiations the Government has announced an amendment to the Property Law Act to assist businesses who are experiencing rent issues due to Covid-19.
Key things to note are:
- A clause will be included to cover commercial leases requiring a fair reduction in rent where a business has suffered a loss of revenue during lockdown.
- The package will invest up to $40 million in providing access to arbitration in a timely and cost-effective way to support small or medium businesses to reach agreement on a fair rent.
- Businesses must be New Zealand based and have 20 or fewer full time staff.