Businesses most affected by COVID-19 can already apply for partial compensation of non-residential lease payments

Businesses or entrepreneurs whose activities carried out in leased premises have been suspended due to declared quarantine, from now on, can apply to the National Development Agency Investment and Business Guarantees (INVEGA) for partial compensation of lease payments. Compensation is intended to cover the lease costs incurred between 16 March and the end of the quarantine period plus two more months. Applications for compensation can be submitted until 1 December this year. Currently, the amount of EUR 100 million is available for compensation.

For institutions, such as beauty salons, private medical offices, sports clubs, businesses and entrepreneurs from other affected sectors, who are forced to stop their activities in the leased premises because of the pandemic and who have had their monthly lease payments reduced by lessors by at least 30 % compared to February, public funding is provided to compensate for 50 % of the lease payments made in February, but no more than the actual contribution. If the company’s main activities were prohibited and were not actually carried out or carried out to a minimum, e.g. the catering sector including restaurants, cafes etc., but the company had a secondary activity in the form of food delivery services and it will also be eligible for compensation.

Companies that have just started operating can also apply for this support, if they have paid their first non-residential lease payments since the start of their operations in March, April or subsequent months and these payments were already made with a discount compared to the monthly lease payment fixed in the lease contract. The amount of compensation for them is calculated by comparing the lease for the period of compensation with the monthly lease amount specified in the lease contract. The non-residential lease contract must have been signed not later than 15 March this year, registered with the Centre of Registers and effective during the application for compensation.

“It is important to emphasise that in this case the partial compensation of lease costs is based on cooperation between the two parties – the lessor and the lessee, since the submitted application must be filled in together with the lessor and the lessee receives the subsidy only if the lessor has made a discount to him. This is important to note, as the proper presentation of the requested information will allow an expeditious evaluation of the application and, in the absence of any shortcomings, speed up its approval. Then financial support will reach the accounts of companies much faster”, says INVEGA CEO Kęstutis Motiejūnas.

The application should include the applicant’s main activities, the relationship with the lessor (if any), the lessor’s invoices for the lease services provided in February 2020 and the months during which the discount was granted. As the compensation is paid on the basis of the lease costs actually incurred, the company or entrepreneur whose application has been approved will be able to submit new invoices in his account: https://NUOMA.invega.lt due to the additional lease costs incurred until 1 December.

The application is considered if the business entity claiming compensation was not considered to be a company in difficulty at the end of 2019, it does not have the status of an enterprise in bankruptcy, restructuring or liquidation at the time of the application, and the company set up its business not later than 16 March 2020. Companies must also submit a set of financial statements for 2019 to the state enterprise Centre of Registers.

INVEGA notes that non-residential lease costs are not covered by public funds to companies whose main activity is e-commerce, specialised retail of arms and ammunition, gambling and betting or other gambling activities, and activities carried out by financial institutions. The lessee and the lessor may not also belong to the same group of undertakings and/or lease premises from a natural person who holds the majority of votes in a company submitting an application.