Section 3 of the Act would prevent landlords in the above situations from issuing late payment announcements, rent protection, eviction of commercial tenants and termination of commercial tenant contracts with respect to one of the following: the protection of commercial tenants, similar to what was previously announced in British Columbia, potentially occurs in Alberta. See the Alberta government`s june 16, 2020 press release. On June 16, 2020, the Alberta government introduced Bill 23: the Commercial Tenancies Protection Act, which protects professional tenants from forced evictions and layoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic. This legislation and a future regulation (which is expected to be published within two weeks) will cover the period from 17 March 2020 to 31 August 2020. The bill expressly provides that it does not apply to forced evictions or leases that took place prior to first reading, which took place on June 16, 2020. The law provides for landlords and tenants to enter into a payment plan for late payments resulting from the COVID 19 pandemic. Landlords would retain the right to dislodge a tenant or terminate a tenancy agreement if there have been certain breaches of a tenancy agreement, as long as the tenancy agreement identifies the particular offence as grounds for eviction or termination and the infringement is not due to the above reasons. Possible examples of significant offences are tenants who commit illegal acts, endanger persons or property, or the bankrupt tenant. In addition, the lessor can distribute or terminate if the tenant is late in payments in accordance with the payment plan required by law. For the majority of commercial landlords and tenants in Alberta, the apparent remedy for financial protection or redress rests with the civil courts dealing with all aspects of civil law, since it is the use or abuse of contracts. In addition, landlords are prohibited from increasing rent and charging late fees and penalties for missed rents.
It should be noted that all late fees, penalties or rent increases imposed by a commercial tenant between March 17, 2020 and August 31, 2020 must be reimbursed to the tenant. All payment schedules between the parties must take this refund into account. The Commercial Tenancies Protection Act and regulations protect legitimate commercial tenants who face financial challenges as a result of the COVID 19 pandemic. The tenancy agreement is a contract between the landlord and the tenant before the tenant arrives. The agreement can be written, oral or tacit, but the written word is always better because it provides evidence if there is a problem. Our real estate blog contains a brief commentary on current legal trends and developments affecting your business. The themes covered in Lawson Lundell`s real estate blog are of interest to commercial real estate developers, real estate agents and post agents, investors, landlords and tenants, as well as a variety of industry groups. Each landlord and tenant have current business debts such as salary slip, benefits, equipment rents, secured/unsecured debt financing, taxes and insurance payments, to name a few. To date, public subsidy programs have been announced, some government authorities have implemented deferral payment programs, such as property tax deferrals, and financial institutions are considering requests for credit deferrals or other credit payment arrangements.