New CTRS (Commercial Tenancy Relief Scheme) Regulations released by Victorian Government.

The New CTRS (Commercial Tenancy Relief Scheme) Regulations released by Victorian Government and are now up on the Vic legislation website at https://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/as-made/statutory-rules/commercial-tenancy-relief-scheme-regulations-2022

In brief:

On 16 January 2022 the extended CTRS took effect and will end on 15 March 2022.

Eligible businesses (tenants) that make a compliant rent relief request under the extended Scheme will be eligible for relief retrospectively from 16 January 2022.

The definition of SME changes to ‘small entity’, defined as an entity with turnover (including group) of less than $10 million.

Eligibility can be assessed by comparing turnover from January 2020 to turnover from January 2022 or if the business closed for a week or more during January 2020 because of an event or circumstances outside the tenant’s usual operations and started trading again by 31 January 2022, the tenant can compare December 2019 turnover with December 2021.

Alternative tests are available for different circumstances.