PLANS to reopen Melbourne following months of severe COVID-19 restrictions will come too late for pharmacy owner, Anja Faustein, who has been ordered to vacate her CBD store by 5pm today.
Speaking on Sky News over the weekend, Faustein, said her landlord issued a breach of lease and gave two weeks' notice to pay the full rent with no reduction, before terminating the agreement last week and sending an email on Thu night asking her to leave the premises by close of business today.
Faustein said she had supported her landlord's application for Land Tax relief, which resulted in a 15% deferral and a 15% waiver on her rent for the month of Apr.
The pharmacy owner said subsequent efforts at mediation proved unsuccessful.
"I'm in absolute shock," she said.
"There's around 50 retail premises in the Melbourne CBD area, which are completely empty and vacated already.
"Some landlords must have come to an agreement with tenants, [because] as far as I know, I'm the only one which has been evicted so far.
"My landlord thinks she's found legal grounds to not have to comply with the COVID legislation, which I find really interesting and I would like to know why."
Pharmacy Guild of Australia Victorian Branch President, Anthony Tassone, told Pharmacy Daily that the State's COVID restrictions have been "extremely difficult on tenants and landlords", and called on lessors to be mindful of the challenges facing pharmacies.
"Whilst as a city we are on the cusp of a re-opening of the economy as part of the Victorian government's 'roadmap to recovery' -- the huge challenges faced by small businesses across Melbourne won't be resolved overnight -- and we do not want to see the preventable closures of pharmacies and potential interruptions to patient care," he said.
"We can only hope that the latest matter of Elizabeth Pharmacy reported on Sky News is not the 'canary in the coal mine' of other pharmacies having serious disputes with their landlords resulting in eviction."
Tassone added the Guild would continue to call on the Victorian Government to support pharmacies to "see through to the other side of this global pandemic".
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