COVID-19 Top 5 tips for Commercial Tenants

The current lockdown restrictions will have caused problems commercial tenants across all sectors. Our Retail specialist, Robert Rosenberg gives his top 5 tips for commercial tenants:

1. Really this should be one, two and three – TALK to your landlord. Landlords should not be scary but they are scared of this. We all are. They have families too.  You need to “share the pain” with landlords. We recommend picking up the phone and start with small talk. Then tell them how you are having to make cuts but that your staff and customers are so important to keep going.  Then ask them for their help. Start back asking for 3 months’ rent free. This is clearly the best.

2. If you can’t get rent free ask for monthly rents.  If you pay quarterly it is a huge drain on cash flow – if you can pay monthly that is clearly fairer.

3. Ask for a discount off the rent – say 50% for a couple of months.

4. In normal times (if you can remember them) a landlord can change the locks on you if you don’t pay the rent.  Not at the moment – the UK Government has put a stop to that until the end of June.

5. Ask for a lower service charge – if no one is around to tend to the building then the service charge should be lower.

If you need further assistance you can always call us on 020 8349 5504 or send an email and we will do our best to help.