The Court held that a landlord's re-entry and forfeiture of a commercial lease for non-payment of rent during the COVID-19 prescribed period (24 October to 31 December 2020) constituted repudiation, applying the binding construction from Croc's Franchising v Alamdo that clause 4 of the Second COVID Regulation imposed a blanket prohibition on prescribed action during the prescribed period regardless of compliance with clauses 5 and 6. The Court further held that the National Code's good faith negotiation obligation did not confine a landlord to considering only turnover reduction; a landlord was justified in seeking certified financial information about the broader impact of COVID-19 on a tenant's profitability, and conditioning offers on receipt of such information did not evidence bad faith. A market rent review notice specifying a gross rent inclusive of outgoings was valid where the lease structure required the lessor to pay all outgoings, and there was no precondition of prior agreement before invoking the contractual market rent review procedure.
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