• Commerce Minister John Quigley announces extension of emergency period to Sunday 28 March 2021.
• Extended Code will be “targeted” to small commercial tenants who can prove ongoing pandemic hardship and are eligible for revised JobKeeper scheme.
• Residential tenancies arrangements also extended.

COMMERCIAL CODE EXTENDED

Commerce Minister John Quigley announced in State Parliament this morning that the Commercial Tenancies Code will be extended until Sunday 28 March 2021.

The Code was due to expire on 29 September 2020, however, the State Government said the extension was warranted due to ongoing business hardship and interstate extensions.

The Minister said the “targeted application” of the Code “acknowledges the resilience of many WA businesses while continuing to acknowledge those that need protection.”

It means that existing laws, including the moratorium on evictions, freeze on rent rises and the Code of Conduct for small business rent relief negotiations will apply “in a more targeted manner” after September 29, the State Government said.

Given the strong performance of the WA economy and the very generous rent concessions already paid to WA tenants, Property Council WA has expressed strong opposition to the extension of the Code.

We will now turn our attention to ensuring the new Regulations prevent rent relief being provided to tenants who are actively limiting trade or refusing to pay rent. Property Council WA maintains our view that land tax relief in Western Australia is inadequate to compensate property owners who have done the right thing in giving rent relief to their tenants.

We will continue to advocate to the State Government to address this inequity compared to other States.

You can read the State Government’s media release here.

Updated details on Consumer Protection’s website are available here.