The COVID-19 pandemic in Germany is significantly affecting commercial landlords and tenants. The German legislator has taken various measures to mitigate the consequences of officially ordered business closures in lockdown and other pandemic-related adverse effects.

Of relevance to commercial leasing law in this regard are the Act to Mitigate the Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Civil, Insolvency and Criminal Procedure Law (COVID-19 Act) and the Act to Further Shorten the Residual Debt Relief Procedure and to Adjust Pandemic-Related Provisions in Company, Cooperative, Association and Foundation Law and in Tenancy and Lease Law (Adjustment Act).

This briefing summarises the (new) statutory provisions and court rulings to date that are of relevance to commercial leasing law. In addition, it outlines government assistance programmes relevant to landlords and tenants for mitigating the impact of the pandemic.

Please see PDF document attached.