Commercial landlords tightening the screws on bar and restaurant owners

If you are currently experiencing difficulties with a tiresome landlord as I know some of you are please see below the comments of Jonathan Downey reported over the weekend. If any of you need assistance in this field I have very experienced colleagues who will be able to assist. Best wishes G

“London Union founder Jonathan Downey, who is campaigning alongside UK Hospitality for government sector concessions, has reiterated calls for a six-month debt enforcement moratorium and urged operators not to be bullied into paying their rent. The government has extended the moratorium on lease forfeiture to commercial tenants for three months. The decision, with the quarterly rent call due on Wednesday (25 March), means landlords can’t forfeit an operator’s lease, change locks or take possession of their premises. However, Downey said some landlords were using “bullying tactics” to get business owners to pay part or full rent for the quarter. In a message to landlords, he said: “I am seeing lots of offers from landlords that rents can go monthly. No they can’t. That’s no kind of deal and you should all be holding on to your cash right now. Everything is on hold. It has only been nine days since our sales were wiped out and four days since lock-down. There’s a moratorium. Revenue streams are at zero. We’re struggling to find the cash flow to co-fund the Job Retention Scheme to save millions of livelihoods. Back off. We’re doing our bit, you need to do yours. I know some of you are doing your bit (thank you) and you should announce this loudly to put pressure on others. We don’t want to hear any more bleating from the British Property Federation and other organisations. You should be advising your members to step up at a time of national crisis, not bring out threats and aggression. It’s shameful and you will be hated.” Downey reiterated a debt enforcement moratorium was required. He continued: “If we get a moratorium that’s a freeze on any action to recover debt by anybody at any time for ideally a six-month period. We may get that. If we do, no landlord will be able to take action in regards to the recovery of any amount due under any lease. Unless your situation is so precarious and your site so valuable and at risk you daren’t not pay your rent, my advice to everyone is don’t pay your rent yet. Don’t pay your service charge, don’t pay any amount due under your lease. Wait a day or two, if it’s safe for you to do so, and hopefully we’ll have some further protection. This moratorium would not only provide business and premises owners with protection, it would provide landlords with protection against the banks and other lenders who may be seeking to enforce debt security over premises and trying to take possession of premises landlords aren’t themselves allowed to take possession of any more. In the meantime, hold tight. For 95% of operators this isn’t going to be an issue. Only a few landlords are employing aggressive tactics to try to bully people into paying rent. I’ll be amazed if any of them carry it through but we’ll have to deal with that if they do. Hopefully the moratorium on lease forfeiture has given us some breathing space to try to find a way through this.”