Friday, December 4th, 2020
Hardly any adjustments to contracts
Commercial landlords leave traders alone
In the Corona crisis, many retailers are not only suffering from the lockdown, but also open shops have fewer customers. Despite all the assurances of the real estate industry, most landlords of commercial space do not want to bear the burden of the crisis. Rent adjustments are rare.
According to a newspaper report, numerous landlords of commercial space are not ready to provide relief for tenants in the Corona crisis. This was reported by the "Handelsblatt", citing a survey by the trade association HDE among 245 retailers. Accordingly, the attempt by the retailers to hold talks with their landlords about adapting their lease was unsuccessful in two thirds of the cases.
Either the landlords completely rejected negotiations from the outset (25 percent), put off their tenants for a later date (12 percent) or the negotiations were unsuccessful (28 percent). Only in a third of the cases could retailers have achieved an adjustment of the rental agreement. In this context, the trade association is calling on Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht to advance her announced legal measures to strengthen commercial tenants in corona emergencies as quickly as possible.
"Above all, many inner-city retailers are in existential difficulties because of the Corona crisis and the associated government containment measures with falling customer frequencies and sales," said HDE Managing Director Stefan Genth to the "Handelsblatt". He complained that, contrary to what the associations of the real estate industry claimed, large parts of the landlords were not prepared to share the special risks of the current crisis situation with their contractual partners.
. (tagsToTranslate) Economy (t) Retail (t) Rent (t) Corona crisis