Amongst the pandemic’s many economic victims are the restaurants, hotels and other venues closed or partially closed by lockdown regulations. Unable to trade, many have asked their landlords for rental relief. Others have claimed a legal entitlement to remission of rentals, citing “supervening impossibility of performance”.

Commercial landlords and their tenants both need to understand their respective rights and obligations when a disaster of this nature strikes. A recent High Court judgment, in which a high-profile steakhouse restaurant was sued for almost R3m in arrear rental after being forced to close its doors during the “hard lockdown”, and to restrict itself to limited trading thereafter, provides valuable pointers on how our courts are likely to approach these matters. Take particular note of the Court’s practical advice to commercial landlords and tenants…