Are you a commercial tenant?

Frustration

As a commercial tenant, you might be entitled to terminate your lease on the basis of frustration due to the current pandemic. In particular this concerns businesses that have been financially affected by COVID-19 to the extent that continuing to pay the rent will be challenging.

In other words, you might not be under any legal obligation to carry on paying rent for your business premises that are currently not in use during the lockdown.

Normally, it is difficult to terminate a lease on the basis of frustration, but in these extraordinary times, you may well be able to do so.

Suspension of rent

Alternatively, you might want to suspend paying rent for your business premises that are not in use during the pandemic. Dependent on the wording of your lease, there is a real possibility that you might be eligible to claim a suspension of rent due to COVID-19.

Whether or not you might be entitled to claim for suspension of rent or frustration can be assessed by us on an individual basis.

Important

Prior to getting in touch with us to determine whether you could legitimately suspend any rent payments or terminate the lease in its entirety, the following questions need to be considered:

1. How has COVID-19 affected your business?
2. Has anyone within your organisation been diagnosed with COVID-19 that resulted in your business premises being closed down?
3. How long has your organisation been unable to use their commercial premises for?
4. How likely is it that you will be able to carry on paying your current rent when the lockdown is over?

Get in touch

To discuss this further, please contact our property dispute specialist Richard Darbinian at Richard.Darbinian@wards.uk.com