Apr

Salisbury office landlord donates £10k Coronavirus grant to his struggling tenants

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The office rental market is under the same financial strains as the residential one, but one landlord’s unusual and generous offer to his tenants shows commercial landlords can be accommodating too.

A kind-hearted landlord has used his small business grant to give tenants a rent holiday, unlike many of the larger commercial landlords.

Alan Munro, who
runs an accountancy firm in Salisbury, rents out offices in his two-storey
premises to the
Alzheimer’s Support and Digestive Cancers Europe charities along with a drum
studio.

But instead of pocketing his £10,000 grant
from the Government to help firms during the crisis, the small business owner
waived all their rent.

Says Alan: “I got the grant through from the
council because the building was closed. The purpose of this grant is to get
businesses to survive and whilst I have interest costs in the mortgage I took
out on the building, that doesn’t use up £10,000 in three months.

“Given that the offices are closed and they don’t use any
electricity and stuff like that it seemed very fair to me. The scheme is not
there to make a profit.”

Alan often organises events and sponsored runs to raise
funds for Alzheimer’s Support, which is losing about £7,000 a week as donations
dry up. It says although it has a number of premises around the country, Alan was
the only landlord to waive its rent.

And Alan has this message for other landlords: “If you are a rental business and you have received a grant, ask yourself why would you collect your rent if you’ve got enough money to maintain the building and pay your mortgage.”

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