Translated material
"Chocolate" against Abramovich: as tenants and owners of the shopping center are beating for the bill on the termination of lease agreements
One of the main business conflicts of the coronavirus crisis-between large tenants and owners of shopping centers-should be resolved in the near future. A compromise may be an option in which tenants will receive the right to break the lease unilaterally without sanctions, but only until October of this year. But it is possible that tenants will still be able to conquer the termination of contracts through the court.
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What happened
Last week, the State Duma adopted a government bill on the support of the economy. It includes provisions on the tenant’s unconditional right to abandon the contract without charging any boards if his income from the introduction of an increased readiness regime fell by more than 50%. The owners of the shopping center considered these provisions dangerous for their entire sector.
This week, the Ministry of Economic Development prepared an amendment to the document for the second reading, recognized Vedomosti. She gives the tenants two reliefs:
Lessee will be able to break out contracts with the owners of the premises unilaterally, but only until October 1, 2020.
The tenant must compensate for the loss to the owners of the premises in the amount of one monthly payment.
The ministry reported that together with the deputies is looking for a compromise, but it should give tenants the opportunity to "get rid of the bonded conditions in which they are now."
The key second reading of the bill has been postponed today for the next week. The announced reason is the refinement of the document, taking into account the appeal of Vladimir Putin on May 11 to support citizens and business.
What is important to know about the bill
Around this bill, the interests of landlords and tenants collided, the conflict came into a public plane, both sides throw officials with letters.
The Russian Union of shopping centers immediately opposed the document, warning about the “irreversible destruction of the industry without the possibility of restoration” and 6.3 million people behind the poverty line.
This week, an open letter was published 11 leaders in the commercial real estate rental market, including the structures of Roman Abramovich, Mikhail Gutseriev, Alexander Klyachin and other businessmen. The meaning of the letter is that the one -sided termination of contracts without compensation will cause a collapse not only of the commercial real estate sector, but also banks that issued it to 6 trillion rubles.
Tenants whose business actually stopped, on the contrary, advocate the speed of the bill: the Association of Retail Companies (Acort) and the Association of Internet trade companies (Akit) asked the State Duma to accelerate the adoption of the document. If the proposal does not pass, then “in the summer we will see completely empty shopping centers in connection with the bankruptcies of retailers,” said the head of Akit Artem Sokolov.
The industry knows about the amendment about October, said Oleg Podgorny, general director of the Chocolate Restaurant Network, - it was discussed on May 11 at a meeting at the Presidential Assistant for Economic Affairs Maxim Oreshkin. This option was satisfied with the tenants, he claims. “All this was confirmed and agreed until the lobbyists who are not ready for flexibility joined in the State Duma to discuss the bill. There is a fear that in the end they will accept the amendment, according to which it will be possible to terminate the contract unilaterally only through the court. This will mean several months of rental charges, lawsuit and, as a result, bankruptcy, ”the businessman warns.
They talk about it
The tenants have hope only for this bill, says Podgorny. According to him, he is aimed not at all lessons, but only to those who are not ready to show any flexibility. “We ourselves do not want to leave the dots - each point is an average of 15 million investments, most of which are inseparable from the premises, for example, repair of walls and floors,” the businessman explains.
The law on termination of contracts is not a way of blackmailing the landlords, but a way to “cool” those who require “100% paying for a lease of a closed premises and puts fines for 2-3-10 million rubles,” the founder of Teremok Mikhail Goncharov agrees. He published a new letter of the Federation of restaurateurs and hoteliers to Vladimir Putin. Restorators ask the president to “prevent a situation where the effectiveness of the measures proposed by the Government of the Russian Federation will be leveled by the desire of real estate owners to maintain the previous amount of rent and often bond and hopeless conditions for lease agreements on pre -crisis conditions.”
A quarter of the tenants of 290 points of the network do not go to any concessions to the Chocolate, states Podgorny: “We have already charged 70 million rubles of rent at non -working points, the same will be in May - these amounts exceed the revenue of the restaurant (now the“ chocolate ”works for delivery) by one and a half times.”
The general director of the Svyaznoy network, Yevgeny Davydovich, also called relations with the tenants of the “most burning theme”. True, unlike a cafe, the cellular retail was lucky - 75–80% of the network points are open. “But there is a group of landlords, first of all, it is large shopping centers that behave as if nothing has changed, exhibit agreements in currency (there are about 5%, mainly in Moscow). There are those who do not just give a discount, but are trying to index the rent - for example, it was in Novosibirsk, ”said the businessman The Bell.
Whether the law will be accepted or not, this is the twenty-fifth question, he believes: “Perhaps there will be some kind of comma, which will bring the whole law to ensure that we go to understand the court. We can go to court, but this is a very long process, and its result is obviously not guaranteed. ”
Davydovich is sure that if the tenants come to concessions now, their problems will begin later, when retail outlets do not open. “We must somehow agree. There is a successful example of Israel, where large network tenants united and ultimatively told shopping centers on what conditions they are ready to open, ”he says.
He recognizes the problems of landlords: many shopping centers are built for credit money or in pledge from banks and do not give a discount, because banks do not give restructuring on the loan. “It turns out that the messages that the Central Bank gave is either not enough, or banks are not used enough for some reason,” says Davydovich.
The co -founder of the HOFF furniture network Mikhail Kuchment also indicates that tenants depend only on the goodwill of the lessors. “Now the entire system of rental relations is arranged so that the landlord is an absolute dominant in this balance: any of our stores can be closed because we have not paid in time, etc. If 20 or 30% of the landlords did not meet you, then this is enough to go bankrupt, ”the businessman says. “Today we do not even have the word“ negotiations, ”he said.
According to him, the bill already in the first reading, with the right to terminate the contracts, will allow “at least somehow to balance this situation”, protecting the company and jobs in them from bankruptcy. “Retail will have the opportunity to terminate and move to other premises with inflexible landlords, there will still be many empty premises on the market. We are not Europe where the state transfer money to companies to pay rent. We ask for a lack of money support, which will simply allow to align the balance, and not shift losses from retailers on developers, ”the businessman explains. He heard that in the original version it was about the possibility of breaking the contract until the end of the year, but this is not of fundamental importance: to terminate the contract before October 1 is also normal.
“An amendment to the Law on Lease, which allows the tenant to get out of bonded contractual relations without fines, will give at least some argument of our industry in the dialogue with lesslers,” says Olga Kiseleva, president of the association of Russian fitness industry. Now the fines for the gap reach the annual rental size, and only a quarter of the tenants went towards fitness clubs.
According to the other side, the amendments of the Ministry of Economic Development is a true, but insufficient step towards the landlords. But even at the same time, the item on one -sided termination of lease agreements violates the principles of justice and civil equality and gives advantages to the tenants, said Evgeny Potashnikov, First Deputy Director General of the AFI Development.