Commercial Landlord Hardship Grant

If you’re a small commercial or residential landlord, you may be eligible for this grant if your main source of income is impacted due to providing rent relief to tenants financially impacted by COVID-19 restrictions.

Grants of up to $3,000 per month per property (one application needs to be made per eligible property) are available for eligible landlords who have provided rental waivers to affected tenants. Rent waived must comprise at least half of any rental reduction provided. The remaining portion may be a rental deferral. Grants will be paid as a lump sum amount for the rent waived from:

• 1 August to 14 November 2021.
• 15 November 2021 to 13 January 2022.
• 14 January to 13 March 2022, subject to a separate application. Applications for this period will open from late March 2022.
  

Applications close 31 May 2022.

Eligibility

To be eligible for this grant you must:

• Be the landlord of a property in NSW
• Have an agreement to provide rental relief to tenants from 13 July 2021 (a minimum 30% rental reduction is required)
• For rent waived between 1 August 2021 to 13 January 2022, have not claimed or will not claim, land tax relief between 1 July and 31 December 2021. Landlords who have claimed land tax relief between 1 July and 31 December 2021 will be eligible to apply for rent waived between 14 January and 13 March 2022.
• Have total land holdings valued at $5 million or less as at 31 December 2020 excluding the value of your principal residence.
• Have more than 50% of your total income derived from gross rental income for the 2019-20 or 2020-21 financial year.
• If you are a business, attest that providing rent relief to your tenants may cause you financial hardship because you:
  a. Are at imminent risk of closure, or
  b. Are unable to pay for operating expenses, including rent or employee related expenses for employing business landlords, or
  c. May be forced to reduce employee headcount if you are an employing business landlord, and
  d. Have not incurred excessive and non-essential business expenses, and
  e. Have experienced a decline in revenue due to the impact of the NSW public health orders, and
  f. Cannot rearrange finances or draw upon non-essential assets to continue operation.
• If you are individual, in a partnership or hold the property on trust, attest to financial hardship if you:
  a. Are unable to maintain your current standard of living for yourself or your immediate family, and
  b. Have not incurred excessive and non-essential living expenses.

What you need before you can apply for this grant

• A MyServiceNSW Account – if you don’t already have one you can create one when you start your application.
• Your proof of identity documents such as your Australian Driver licence and your Medicare card.
• The following documents:

1. 2020-21 financial year council rates notice or Revenue NSW Client ID and Correspondence ID to show the property is in NSW.
2. Landlord’s 2019-20 or 2020-21 income tax return showing that gross rental income is the primary source of income (more than 50% of total gross income), with your tax file number hidden.
3. The current impacted lease agreement, or other documentation where the lease agreement is not available (for example the most recent rental ledgers, bank statements or rent receipts for the period that rent is waived).
4. Rental waiver agreement providing rental reduction, rental ledgers or a letter from the property manager – this is only applicable to landlords of commercial rental properties and a template is available to be used on the Service NSW website page where you go to apply for this grant.
5. Details of the rental reduction, including:
   a. Start and end dates
   b. Total monthly value of pre-COVID rent
   c. Amount of total monthly rental reduction (including both waived and deferred amounts)
   d. Amount of total monthly rent waived
6. Tenant’s contact details.
7. Tenant’s ABN or ACN – only applicable to commercial tenants.
8. Bank details for payment of this grant.

To apply for the above grant, follow the link below

https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/apply-commercial-landlord-hardship-grant

If you have any questions in regards to the eligibility requirements to apply for the above grant, please don’t hesitate to contact Waterford Accountants.