COVID-19 And Commercial Tenancies ' The Court's View On Non-Payment Of Rent

• Published date: 07 January 2021
• Law Firm: William Fry
• Author: Ms Gr'inne Varian, Brian O'Callaghan and Richard Breen

The core issue in Oyster Shuckers Limited t/a Klaw v Architecture Manufacture Support (EU) Limited [2020] IEHC 527 centred around the validity of a lease of a premises operated as a restaurant by the plaintiff (Tenant), and an ability to pay rent. The Tenant stopped paying rent after March 2020 prompting the first named defendant (Landlord) to threaten that it would take possession of the premises and demanding that the Tenant deliver up vacant possession.

The Tenant applied to the High Court (Court) for injunctive relief preventing the Landlord from taking possession. The Landlord's position was that the only valid lease between the parties had expired, and the Tenant was overholding. The Tenant argued that it had the benefit of an alleged lease which had been agreed in November 2018 (Disputed Lease).

In June 2020, the Tenant secured an interim injunction preventing the Landlord from taking immediate possession, largely on foot of the inadvertent moratorium created by the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (COVID-19) Act 2020 "on all proposed evictions in all tenancies in the State" during the operation of that Act, which we previously reported on here.

The interlocutory injunction application came before the Court in October 2020.

Injunctive...