One of the biggest overheads for any beauty salon is likely to be rent. And with the Morrison government announcing last week that beauty salons had to close their doors, thousands of salon owners were left wondering how they were going to pay their landlords.
While there isn’t a lot of good news for salon owners at the moment, on Sunday night there was a glimmer of hope; Scott Morrison revealed that state and territories would be moving to put a moratorium on evictions of tenants as a result of financial distress, if they’re unable to pay their rent. “There would be a moratorium on evictions for the next six months under those rental agreements,” the Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister urged landlords and tenants to open a discussion about the best way forward; to ensure as many businesses as possible could reopen after the epidemic.
“My message to tenants, particularly commercial tenants, and commercial landlords, is a very straightforward one – we need you to sit down, talk to each other and work this out,” he said. “There is no rule book for this. We are in unchartered territory, but the goal should be shared and that is a business that can reopen on the other side, not weighed down by excessive debts because of rental arrears.”
It’s bound to be a relief for salon owners who were panicking about finding means to meet their rental commitments, and Scot Morrison says more measures would be announced in the coming days.
“We will be engaging with business ad landlords and banks over the next couple of days to seek to get even stronger provisions in place so they can all sit down and get this sorted,” the Prime Minister said.
For more news and updates, subscribe to our weekly newsletter.