By Deren Hassan, Partner and Clementine Fryer, Associate

Yesterday, 13 July 2021, the NSW Government announced an economic support package aimed at assisting NSW brave the current COVID-19 lockdown.

For retail and commercial landlords, the 2021 COVID-19 package means:

• no recovery of security bonds and no lockouts of impacted tenants unless the parties have participated in mediation; and
• land tax relief equal to the value of rent reductions provided by landlords to financially distressed tenants of up to 100% of the 2021 land tax year liability.

No criteria for what is an impacted or financially distressed tenant has been provided at this stage. It appears the NSW Government may be mirroring some of the legislative and administrative measures previously introduced to deal with the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on businesses operating from retail and commercial leased premises. Landlords will be prohibited from recovering security bonds and locking out tenants unless landlords have discharged their obligations and participated in mediation.

More information about the package will be released by the NSW Government later this week. We will provide further details of how the package will impact landlords and tenants upon release.