In these challenging times, life has become incredibly difficult for so many people in society. Times are stressful, loved ones have been lost, finances are fraught and people's mental health is being challenged almost constantly in dealing with the difficulties of each day.
Whilst there are people who don’t make your life easy, I’m pleased to say that I have the pleasure of working with some great clients, applicants and professionals that have enabled our Commercial Property Department here at Eightfold to progress quickly since our inception last year.
What prompted me to write this blog, followed a call I had from a gentleman asking me if I could help him to get a rent reduction from his landlord in light of current market conditions, following attempts that he had made to resolve the matter directly with his landlord that had been unsuccessful.
After chatting through with this chap for 20 minutes or so it turned out that his business had actually faired pretty well during the Covid pandemic, he’d benefitted from not paying rates and also received a business rates grant, so was actually in a far stronger position than he had been pre-COVID, yet felt entitled to a discount from his landlord too, despite the fact that his landlord would still have a mortgage to pay.
I am pleased to say that during these pandemic struggles, I have seen some great co-operation where needed between landlords amd tenants with support and solutions being found where needed. With many working at capacity right now the message I would like to get across is that everyone can try to adopt a policy of being fair and reasonable in these times and not take liberties or be opportunistic at the detriment of others it’s likely we will all benefit!
The message here is simple, be nice, the nicer we are to each other, the easier life and business will continue to be, while the world is tough!