Landlords are set to be BANNED from evicting tenants who can’t pay the rent due to financial hardship for the next six months under tough new coronavirus restrictions
- Renters will be offered a moratorium on evictions to deal with economic impacts
- Scott Morrison urged landlords to work with their tenants and banks on solutions
- The prime minister said the country’s leaders are working in ‘uncharted territory’
- Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?
Landlords are set to be legally forbidden from evicting their cash-strapped tenants under tough new coronavirus restrictions.
Renters will be offered a moratorium on evictions, in a bid to deal with the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said a series of principles had been agreed at Sunday night’s national cabinet.
‘State and Territories will be moving to put a moratorium on evictions of persons as a result of financial distress if they are unable to meet their commitments and so there would be a moratorium on evictions for the next six months,’ he told a press conference.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said a series of principles had been agreed at Sunday night’s national cabinet
Australia’s confirmed coronavirus cases have been rising by the hour, with the majority of cases coming from New South Wales
Further work is being done by federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and his state and territory counterparts on commercial tenancies.
‘We will be engaging with business and landlords and banks over the next couple of days to seek to get even stronger provisions in place,’ he said.
But Mr Morrison underlined the need for landlords to work with their tenants and banks on solutions, which should start immediately.
‘There is a lot of work to be done here and my message to tenants, particularly commercial tenants, it’s a very straightforward one. We need you to sit down, talk to each other and work this out,’ he said.
Measures will be put in place to encourage agreements, as part of the idea of ‘hibernating’ businesses until the coronavirus crisis passes.
‘There is no rule book for this. We are in unchartered territory,’ Mr Morrison said.
‘But the goal should be shared and that is a business can reopen on the other side, not weighed down by excessive debts because of rental arrears, a landlord has a tenant so that they can continue into the future to be able to support the investments that they have made and banks have clients.’
Mr Morrison has also effectively banned gatherings of more than two people across Australia to slow the spread of coronavirus.
He said the meeting of state and federal leaders advised that no more than two people who didn’t live together should be meeting at once.
The two-person limit doesn’t apply to workplaces, offices, schools and households.
Playgrounds, skate parks, and outdoor gyms will also be closed and boot camps reduced to one-on-one outdoor personal training sessions.
Australia has 3,980 cases, rising by the hour, but only a handful in intensive care units or on ventilators and 242 patients have recovered.
Victoria recorded a big jump in cases overnight taking the state total to 769. NSW rose to 1,791 – well over double any other state.
The country’s cases across the board rose 340 by Sunday night.