Apply for a commercial landlord hardship grant 14th January 2022

Firstly, we would like to wish you a healthy and prosperous new year in 2022!

NSW Commercial landlord hardship grant is now open & will close on 31 March 2022.

Please refer application link below & extract from Service NSW website. https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/apply-commercial-landlord-hardship-grant

If you’re a small commercial or retail landlord, you may be eligible for a grant under the commercial landlord hardship fund if your main source of income is impacted due to providing rent relief to tenants financially impacted by COVID-19 restrictions.

Grants of up to $3,000 per month (GST inclusive), per property, are available for eligible landlords who have provided rental waivers to affected tenants. Rent waived must comprise at least half of any rental reduction provided. The remaining portion may be a rental deferral.The grant does not apply to rent deferrals.

For more information, see the guidelines.

https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/commercial-landlord-hardship-fund-guidelines

Grants will be paid as a lump sum amount for the rent waived from 1 August to 14 November 2021.

Additional application period opening end of January

Please note, Applications for eligible landlords who provided rent relief from 15 November 2021 to 13 January 2022 are expected to open at the end of January 2022.

How to apply

1. Check you meet the eligibility criteria.

2. Have your documentation and evidence ready for uploading.

3. Select the ‘Apply online’ button.

     Note: You cannot save and resume your application.

4. Log in, or create your MyServiceNSW Account.

5. Follow the prompts to apply for a commercial landlord hardship grant.

If you own multiple properties, you’ll need to submit an application for each eligible property.

Eligibility

To be eligible for a commercial landlord hardship grant, you must:

• be the landlord of a property in NSW

• have an agreement to provide rental relief to tenants from 13 July 2021

• have not claimed, or will not claim, land tax relief between 1 July 2021 and 31 December 2021

• have total land holdings valued at $5 million or less as at 31 December 2020, excluding the value of your principal residence

• have more than 50% of your total income derived from gross rental income for the 2019–20 or 2020–21 financial year

• if you are a business, attest that providing rent relief to your tenants may cause you financial hardship because you:

o are at imminent risk of closure; or

o are unable to pay for operating expenses, including rent or employee-related expenses for employing business landlords; or

o may be forced to reduce employee headcount if you are an employing business landlord; and

o have not incurred excessive and non-essential business expenses; and

o have experienced a decline in revenue due to the impact of the NSW public health orders; and

o cannot rearrange finances or draw upon non-essential assets to continue operation.

• if you are an individual or hold property on trust, attest to financial hardship if you: o are unable to maintain your current standard of living for yourself or your immediate family; and

o have not incurred excessive and non-essential living expenses.

What you need

• a MyServiceNSW Account – you can create one when you start your application

• your proof of identity

• the following documents to show landlord details, proof of rental income, proof of total income, proof of pre-COVID rent and proof of rental reduction (as PDF, DOCX, DOC, JPEG, JPG or PNG files):

o a contract for sale of land, a 2020–21 council rates notice, or Revenue NSW Client ID and Correspondence ID to show the property is in NSW

o landlord’s 2019–20 or 2020–21 income tax return showing that gross rental income is the primary source of income (more than 50% of total gross income), with your tax file number hidden

o the current impacted lease agreement, or other documentation where the lease agreement is not available (for example, the most recent rental ledgers, bank statements or rent receipts) o tenancy agreement providing rental reduction, rental ledgers or a letter from the property manager.

• details of the rental reduction, including:

o start and end dates

o total monthly value of pre-COVID rent

o amount of total monthly rental reduction (including both waived and deferred amounts)

o amount of total monthly rent waived (see example of how to enter rental relief amounts).

• tenant’s contact details

• tenant’s Australian Business Number or Australian Company Number

• bank details for payment.

Note: You must have your tenant’s permission to share their information with Service NSW and Revenue NSW.

Rental relief example

Barbara's tenant usually pays $6,000 rent per month. When lockdown began, her tenant was forced to close their business. They agreed on a rental reduction of $3,000 a month for 6 months. The reduction was split so:

• $1,000 from monthly rent was deferred. This means that the tenant needs to pay it back at a later date.

• $2,000 from monthly rent was waived. This means the tenant does not need to pay it back.

Barbara should enter the following amounts on her grant application:

• Monthly pre-COVID rent = $6,000

• Monthly amount of total rental reduction = $3,000

• Monthly amount of waived rent = $2,000.

Important: Clients should not act solely on the basis of the material contained in this newsletter. Items herein are general comments only and do not constitute or convey advice per se. Also changes in legislation may occur quickly. We therefore recommend that our formal advice be sought before acting in any of the areas. Client Alert is issued as a helpful guide to clients and for their private information. Therefore it should be regarded as confidential and not be made available to any person without our prior approval.