Apr 27, 2020
Ontario Announces Relief for Commercial Tenants
Friday, April 24th the Province announced the Ontario-Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance Program (the “Program”). The Program provides forgivable loans to commercial landlords who may face a potential decrease in rental revenue due to tenants being unable to afford rent during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Relief: The Program provides commercial landlords with a forgivable loan equal to 50% of the landlord’s before profit costs. The other 50% of the before profit costs are to be covered equally by the landlord and the qualifying tenant (each to 25%). Landlords will be able to apply for the Program until September 30, 2020 and relief will be provided retroactively to April 1, 2020 to cover the months of April, May and June.
Who Qualifies for Relief: The Program sets out two requirements. First, the commercial landlord’s property must have qualifying tenant. A qualifying tenant is a tenant whose gross monthly rent is less than $50,000.00, is not operating an essential business, and lastly is facing either a business shutdown or has seen revenues decline by 70% due to COVID-19. Second, the applicant must be both the registered property owner as well as the landlord under the lease. This Program also extends to commercial property owners that have residential tenants as well as owners of mixed-use properties with a 30% commercial component.
Application Requirements: In order to apply for the Program the landlord must:
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