Section 48 and Schedule 18: Powers to act for the protection of public health: Northern Ireland Section 82: Business tenancies in England and Wales: protection from forfeiture etc
This section establishes that where non-payment of rent enables a landlord to treat a lease as forfeited, that right cannot be exercised for a relevant period. The relevant period commenced on the date on which the Coronavirus Bill (now Act) obtained Royal Assent (25th March 2020) and will end on 30th June 2020-with a power to extend by statutory instrument if it is needed (subject to the negative procedure).
	Subsections (1) and (2) set out that the landlord may not enforce a right of re-entry or forfeiture during the relevant period but protects the landlord from inadvertently waiving the breach. A landlord may, however, expressly waive the breach in writing.
	Subsections (3) to (6) limit the power of the High Court to order forfeiture or possession for non-payment of rent. The court cannot make an order which takes effect before the end of the relevant period.
	Subsections (7) to (10) make similar provision in respect of the County Court.
	Subsection (11) ensures that the tenant’s failure to pay rent during the relevant period is ignored for the purposes of a protected tenant under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 whose lease comes up for renewal. It means that failure to pay rent during this period is not treated as a ‘persistent delay in paying rent’ for the purposes of considering a lease renewal.
	Subsection (12) defines key terms including ‘relevant business tenancy’. The definition includes tenancies to which Part 2 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 applies and to tenancies to which that Part of that Act would apply if any relevant occupier were the tenant (for example where the original tenant has sublet premises and is no longer in occupation).
	The territorial extent and application of this section is England and Wales only.