Tenants in commercial and residential premises will receive a reprieve from evictions due to non-payment of rent along with a freeze on rent increases or the charging of interest on rent arrears under new laws introduced into Parliament in that state.

Introduced on Wednesday, the Commercial Tenancies (COVID-19 Response Bill) and the Residential Tenancies (COVID-19 Response) Bill 2020 will introduce a range of protections for commercial and residential tenants which will apply during the COVID-19 period.

In the commercial sector, a six month moratorium will apply which will prevent landlords from evicting tenants on the basis of non-payment of rent.

The legislation also prescribes:

• a freeze on rent increases;
• restrictions on penalties for tenants who do not trade or reduced their trading hours
• prohibitions on charging interest on rent arrears
• the introduction of a dispute resolution process.

The new laws will also allow for the government to prescribe a code of conduct for commercial tenancies.

This will enable the state to implement a code similar to that agreed to between federal and state governments to assist commercial tenants who have been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.

As well as imposing a moratorium on evictions, that code will allow tenants whose revenues have been impacted by the virus to claim a reduction in rent which is proportional to their revenue loss.

Broadly similar protections will apply under residential tenancies.

In residential, a six month moratorium will mean that tenants will only be able to be evicted under a limited number of circumstances.

These include property damage, assault of landlords or neighbours, undue hardship of either the landlord or tenant, family violence (where perpetrators need to be evicted), abandonment of the premises or frustration of the agreement.

The legislation in respect of residential will also:

• prohibit rent increases during the emergency period
• provide that any fixed term tenancy agreement due to expire during the emergency period will continue as a periodic agreement
• relieve lessors of the obligation to conduct ordinary repairs if the reason they cannot do so is COVID-19 related financial hardship or a lawful restriction on movement
• enable a tenant to end a fixed term tenancy prior to its end date without incurring break lease fees (tenants will still be liable for damage and rent arrears).

Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan said the changes would deliver protection to tenants who were unable to pay rent because of the pandemic and would help landlords and tenants to implement mutually workable arrangements during the crisis.

McGowan stressed that the moratorium applied to evictions rather than rent and that tenants still need to continue paying rent under the law.