The Temporary Protection Measures for Business Tenants (COVID-19 Pandemic) Ordinance will come into effect upon gazettal on May 1, the date when three-month "protection period" under the ordinance will start until July 31.

When the protection period begins or the day when the tenancy becomes effective if it takes effect within the protection period, in respect of any premises that are wholly or primarily used as specified premises and the tenants concerned have defaulted in rent payment between January 1 and the end of the protection period, the landlords will be barred from taking certain rental enforcement actions during the protection period.

Actions taken before the start of the protection period, if still pending, shall be stayed.

The Government said the ordinance aims to provide a short buffer period for business tenants who are in distress due to the COVID-19 epidemic, so that they will not be forced out of business as a result of legal or other rental enforcement actions taken by their landlords for their inability to pay rent immediately, while providing room for the landlords and the tenants to negotiate on the restructuring of rental arrangements.

The rental enforcement actions that landlords are barred from taking include terminating the tenancy, suspending the provision of utility services, deducting rent from the deposit held by the landlord, exercising a right of re-entry or forfeiture, bringing an action in court or presenting a bankruptcy or winding-up petition against the tenant concerned etc.

The schedule to the ordinance sets out the types of specified premises covered by the rental enforcement moratorium. They include most of the scheduled premises under the Prevention & Control of Disease (Requirements & Directions) (Business & Premises) Regulation (save for cruise ships and supermarkets), food and catering business premises, retail shops (excluding supermarkets), education-related premises, and premises used for the business of travel agents, employment agencies and laundry trade etc.

To assist landlord-borrowers who are affected by the rental enforcement moratorium and fail to repay their secured loans, the ordinance stipulates that if the landlord-borrowers can establish that the tenants' inability to pay rent and the rental enforcement moratorium are the sole or significant reason for their default in repayment, the lenders concerned cannot take certain enforcement actions against such landlord-borrowers during the affected period.

Actions taken before the beginning of the affected period, if still pending, shall be stayed.