Rent Dispute Process Available For Businesses With Fewer Than 20 Staff

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.