Tenants during lockdown have the right to seek for a reduction in rent in court, but this procedure does not really work, Head of Omerta Organized Law Group Yevhen Fedoseyev has said.
“In case of refusal to reduce the rent, the tenant has the right to apply to court for a forced reduction of the rent. After the court decision comes into force, the rent will be reduced by a percentage and for the period that will be indicated in the court decision. But this procedure doesn’t work in practice, with a few exceptions,” he told Interfax-Ukraine, commenting on bill No. 3377 adopted at the final stage by parliament, which offers a mechanism to support tenants during lockdown.
“In order to be able to really reduce the rent or take vacations for the lockdown period, there must be an ideal and detailed lease agreement, which in most cases does not exist. As a rule, the lease agreement is formal,” he said.
Fedoseyev said that in many cases business entities that suspended activities due to lockdown are forced to apply to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for force majeure certificates.
He also said that currently, the regulatory framework does not provide a mechanism for determining the amount of preferential rents, in particular in situations where, due to circumstances for which the tenant is not responsible, the tenant is not able to use the property. According to the Civil Code, the tenant is exempt from payment for the entire time during which the property could not be used by him due to circumstances for which he is not responsible.
