{"id":8153,"date":"2021-01-10T22:31:19","date_gmt":"2021-01-10T14:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/?p=8153"},"modified":"2021-06-07T13:08:03","modified_gmt":"2021-06-07T05:08:03","slug":"can-rent-be-recovered-under-the-covid-19-act-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/can-rent-be-recovered-under-the-covid-19-act-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Can rent be recovered under the COVID 19 Act 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

COVID-19 Act came into operation from  October 23,  2020 and shall continue to remain in operation\nfor some time  except where the date of\ncommencement and period of operation have been provided in respect of the\nrespective Parts in this Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONTRACTUAL DUTIES <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Section 7 of the COVID-19 Act prevents another contracting\nparty (landlord\/ lessor for non-residential immovable property) from exercising\nits contractual rights under the lease or tenancy agreement against the party\nexperiencing such inability to perform.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is  to pay rents\npursuant to the lease or tenancy agreement between March 18,  2020 to \nDecember 31,  2020 (extended by\nthe Federal Gazette and notified that the operation is extended for the period\nfrom January 1,  2021 to  March 31, \n2021) provided that no action has been taken by the landlord\/ lessor\nbefore 23rd October 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EXTENSION OF THE COVID 19 ACT <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under Temporary Measures for Reducing the Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 P.U. (A) 386, the operation of Part II of the Act is extended for the period from January 1, 2021 to March 31, 2021. This extension was made on 29th December 2020, click here for the amendment act<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sections 29-31 of the COVID-19 Act modified the Distress Act\n1951 to suspend the rights of lessors\/ landlords to distrain for the arrears of\nrent for the period from March 18,  2020\nto August 31,  2020 (\u201cMoratorium Period\u201d)\nuntil December 31,  2020 and\nlessors\/landlords are entitled to commence distress actions from January 1,\n2021 onward to recover the outstanding rent during  the Moratorium Period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although section 7 and sections  29-31 of the COVID-19 Act seem contradicting\nto each other, my view is that section 7 specifically applicable to\nnon-residential immovable property and sections \n29-31 included  both residential\nand non-residential immovable property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NON RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my humble opinion, if the only issue in question is\nwhether the outstanding rent between the period March 18,  2020 to December 31,  2020 (now extended to  March 31, \n2021) from a tenant for a non-residential immovable property is\nrecoverable or not now? My answer would be no, it is not recoverable.   An action cannot be taken.  Once the landlord takes an action, counter\nmeasures will be launched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For residential properties the doors are now open to recover\nthe rent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The caveat is that,  the inability of a party to perform the\ncontractual obligation is due to the measures prescribed, made or taken under\nPrevention and Control of Infectious Disease Act 1988 [Act 342] to control or\nprevent the spread of COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lim Wen Mi <\/a>
January 10, 2021 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
LIM WEN MI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Read also: TEMPORARY MEASURES FOR REDUCING THE IMPACT OF CORONAVIRUS DISEASE 2019 (COVID-19) ACT 2020<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COVID-19 Act came into operation from  October 23,  2020 and shall continue to remain in operation for some time  except where the date of commencement and period of operation have been provided in respect of the respective Parts in this Act. CONTRACTUAL DUTIES Section 7 of the COVID-19 Act prevents another contracting party (landlord\/ lessor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1805,"featured_media":7805,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28,67],"tags":[87,84],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8153"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1805"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8153"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8162,"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8153\/revisions\/8162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}