Landlords whose tenants stopped paying rent at the start of the moratorium in March 2020 are facing the prospect of no income for two years following the extension to the Governments rent moratorium, say leading tax and advisory firm Blick Rothenberg.

Heather Powell, a partner at the firm and head of property said: “No other industry has been asked to trade, or support their customers, in a similar way.

“It is appalling that the Government continues to treat the opportunist businesses who are generating profits to ignore their landlords and refuse to pay the rent due”

She added: “The government’s announcement means that occupiers of commercial premises – offices, factories, restaurants, cafes and leisure venues cannot be evicted for not paying their rent until after 25 March 2022.”

Heather said: “The government is asking tenants to pay rent due as soon as restrictions are removed in their sector, if they are not already paying but this pious hope has no teeth.”
Heather added: “The Government needs to remember that landlords provide the infrastructure from which UK PLC trades, and from whom investment is required to help UK PLC achieve Carbon Zero by 2050.

“A more nuanced approach, that protects the interests of the landlords and tenants – an approach that genuinely “strikes the right balance” between protecting landlords and supporting businesses most in need is required if all businesses are going to come out of the pandemic ready to meet the challenges of the next ten years”.

Heather said: “Plans for a binding arbitration scheme to resolve disputes from March 2022 gives hope to those landlords have the resources to survive until March 2022 as they may be able to enforce payment of what will be two years overdue rent from tenants who have traded profitably through the pandemic. However, landlords who do not have the cash to do this face fire sales, or worse”