On 7 April 2020, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the
National Cabinet's new Code of Conduct for commercial
tenancies. The Code will become law once it is enacted by each of
the States and Territories shortly.
The Code imposes a set of leasing principles, which must be
applied when negotiating amendments to existing leasing
arrangements for certain tenancies.
The objective of the Code is to share, in a proportionate,
measured manner, the financial risk and cashflow impact during the
COVID-19 pandemic. Landlords and tenants are encouraged to tailor
their agreement to their particular situation (noting some tenants
have obviously been harder hit than others), to ensure businesses
can recover on the other side of this crisis.
