Under the extension, evictions will continue to be banned for both residential and commercial tenancies until 31 December, except in specific circumstances. Rental increases continue to be banned for the same period.

Commercial landlords will be required to provide rent relief in proportion with the fall in turnover being experienced by eligible tenants going forward.

DBA Lawyers director Daniel Butler said while it appears the relief is purely based on eviction and no rent increase, residential tenants are able to request a further extension of rent relief from the landlord.

“If the super fund has an arm’s-length tenant in a residential property, they cannot evict them,” he noted.

“Similarly, where you’ve got an arm’s-length commercial property where the tenants are not paying, you won’t be able to evict them and the landlord is required to negotiate in good faith with the tenant in accordance with the Victorian provisions.”

With close to 26,000 agreements for reduced rent registered with Consumer Affairs Victoria in the past four months, Mr Butler said SMSF clients with tenants in difficult financial situations who already had rent relief documentation in place may now need to revisit this documentation.

“A lot of people would have already documented a position and presumably a lot of people documented it on the basis of the relief expiring at the end of September,” Mr Butler said.

“If you’ve done documents which are locked in to expire at the end of September, and [there are] tenants asking for an extension, advisers may once again need to document this.”