PHOTO: Landlords have expressed frustration with Specsavers and Flight Centre. Photo credit: Getty
Kiwi landlords have slammed large businesses refusing to pay rent, saying: ‘we’ve got bills to pay too’.
The owner and director of Cooper Family Investments Rick Cooper says he was shocked when Specsavers’ Country Director Brendan Thompson called landlords “completely heartless” for demanding rent during the pandemic.
Cooper’s business owns Specsavers’ Taupo premises and says they are refusing to pay any rent and “expect the landlord to take the full hit of this situation”.
He says he is trying to keep his business afloat during the pandemic as well and everyone needs to compromise.
“It’s a long way from the truth when you consider our situation with Specsavers. We’ve got 64 commercial tenants and every one of them including them, we gave them a 50 percent rent reduction for April and a 50 percent rent reduction for May…
“I’m a great believer in fairness… When I went to school and got brought up, fairness meant 50:50 and it’s best, I believe, that both of us get our feet a little bit wet and one person doesn’t cause the other person’s ship to sink.”
Specsavers Taupo reopened on Thursday when New Zealand moved to alert level 2, and Cooper says since they are using the store, have the keys and their stuff inside, they should pay rent.
READ MORE VIA NEWSHUB
MOST POPULAR
