Property Patter: dealing with COVID-19 arrears and the future of commercial tenancy relationships

The recent government announcement extending the restrictions (yet again) on landlords' remedies for recovering commercial lease arrears contained a few surprises.  So what is the position with those remedies at present, how is the government’s Code of Practice being treated by the courts and what are the government’s plans for dealing with pandemic arrears and commercial tenancy relationships?

For information on the current restrictions on landlords’ remedies, please also see:

Commercial rent arrears: what are the latest restrictions on landlords’ remedies this quarter day?

For information on the government’s announcement about its plans for dealing with COVID-19 arrears see:

Commercial rent arrears - the burden of the pandemic remains with landlords

The cases referred to in this podcast are:

Commerz Realinvestmentgesellschaft mbh v TFS Stores Limited [2021] EWHC 863 (Ch)

Lockdown rent arrears: the High Court gives its (summary) view

Lockdown arrears: the High Court gives its view

Bank of New York Mellon (International) Limited v Cine-UK Limited [2021] EWHC 1013 (QB)

Risk allocation in commercial leases: the High Court considers rent suspension, insurance and frustration arguments