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Do I qualify for a commercial lease loan?

Thursday 11/06/2020
Kan ik een handelshuurlening aangaan

The Flemish government is now giving companies that had to close their doors as a result of the Corona measures the opportunity to apply for a loan at favourable conditions.

Who can apply for a commercial lease loan?

The Corona commercial lease loan is only available to businesses that were obliged to fully or partially close their actual physical premises
The scope of the measure is largely the same as that of the Corona nuisance premium. If you are not entitled to the Corona nuisance premium, you are not entitled to the commercial lease loan either. 
Furthermore, as a lessee, you must have a registered commercial lease agreement relating to a property located in the Flemish Region. In addition to commercial leases, other legal structures are also accepted, including leasehold, leasehold estate, usufruct or brewery contracts including the provision of one or more premises.

This is a voluntary agreement

The lessee shall only be entitled to the commercial lease loan providing he enters into a voluntary agreement with the lessor, in which the lessor waives at least one month's rent.  
The Flemish Government assumes that landlords will agree to this in order to avoid bankruptcies and the risk of vacant premises.  
The Flemish Government provides a model agreement for this purpose. The main conditions are as follows:

  • The suspension of the lessee’s obligation to pay the rent, including charges, for a period of at least 3 months. This suspension relates to the rental periods that would have expired in April 2020 at the earliest. There is no requirement for the rental agreement to stipulate that the rent must be paid in monthly instalments.
  • The waiver by the lessor of at least 1 month's rent, including charges.

Curiously, relevant regulations specifically state that it would be preferable to include terms of 4 and 2 months respectively in this agreement.

If the lessor would like their lessee to make a claim for a commercial lease loan, they will have to waive at least 1 month's rent and acknowledge that they will only be able to collect the rent for the next 2 months at a later date. Once the lessee has taken the necessary steps to apply for the loan, and it has been approved, the lessor will receive the rent and charges for the 2 months for which the loan has been taken out directly from the Flemish Region. In exchange for the waiver of at least 1 month's rent, the lessor can rely on the fact that the rent for the next 2 months will be paid.

There must not be any rent arrears and the amount of the commercial lease loan is limited.

Only lessees who did not have rent arrears on 15 March 2020 are eligible for the measure. This will be verified on the basis of a statement of honour included in the agreement between the lessee and lessor. 
The amount of the commercial lease loan is limited to 2 months’ rent, including charges, for each property and each company. The total amount for all the lessee’s premises shall not exceed 35,000 euro.

Interest due

Interest shall be due at a rate of 2% per annum.
You shall have 24 months from the date the loan was granted to repay it in full. The first repayment shall not be due until 6 months after the loan was granted. The lessee must then evenly distribute repayments over the following 18 months.

Procedure 

VLAIO will act as the first point of contact for the Corona commercial lease loan and will develop an application as soon as possible. Applications shall be processed in digital format. The model agreement you enter into with your lessor shall also be available in this way.

Lessees have until 1 October 2020 to submit their application via the VLAIO website.  

At this point in time it is not yet possible to apply for the commercial lease loan. 

If you have other questions regarding the Corona crisis, please visit our special FAQ.

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An Lettens

An Lettens

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