RENT relief: The States and Territories have agreed to implement a national retail leasing code of conduct to provide rent relief for businesses hit by the COVID-19 crisis.
The mandatory retail leasing code of conduct imposes a set of good faith leasing principles to commercial tenancies which are eligible businesses under the JobKeeper program.
The agreement applies a proportional formula to rent reductions based on the tenant's decline in turnover due to the COVID-19 crisis to ensure that the burden is shared between landlords and tenants.
In a statement the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, said: "The code provides a proportionate and measured burden share between the two parties, while still allowing tenants and landlords to agree to tailored, bespoke and appropriate temporary arrangements that take account of the particular circumstances".
The National President of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, George Tambassis, said the Code would provide clarity for commercial tenants, including community pharmacies, where they need to negotiate arrangements with landlords during the COVID-19 downturn.
"Fundamentally, as the Prime Minister said, it is about sitting down and working out an agreed course so that we can all get through this together, and with normal business and employment able to resume," he said.
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