Further Information on Application for Assessment

Introduction
Landlord Financial Hardship
Expanded Powers of Rental Relief Assessors
Application Process
Additional Resources

Introduction ↩

Under the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act and COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) (Rental and Related Measures) Regulations 2020, if a landlord and tenant-occupier are unable to reach a compromise, the property owner and/or any intermediary landlord(s) may make an application for assessment by a rental relief assessor. The rental relief assessment process is managed by an office called the Registry of Rental Relief Assessors, which is under the control and supervision of the Registrar.

The application for assessment must be made within 10 working days after receiving (a copy of) the notice of cash grant, and a rental relief assessor can ascertain any of the following:

a) Whether the tenant-occupier is eligible for Rental Relief and/or Additional Rental Relief; and/or

b) Whether the applicant landlord qualifies to provide only half the Additional Rental Relief, on the basis of financial hardship.

Landlord Financial Hardship ↩

Landlords who meet all the following criteria may apply to a rental relief assessor to reduce the amount of Additional Rental Relief they have to provide:

a) The applicant landlord must be an individual or a sole proprietor, and the owner of the prescribed property;

b) The aggregate of the annual value of all investment properties (including the prescribed property) owned by the landlord (whether directly or through one or more investment holding companies) is not more than S$60,000 as at 13 April 2020; and

c) The rental income derived from all the properties that the landlord must provide Additional Rental Relief for in Year of Assessment 2019 or a later appropriate period¹ constituted 75% or more of the landlord’s gross income.

If the landlord meets the grounds of financial hardship above, the rental relief assessor may halve the amount of Additional Rental Relief to be borne by the landlord, i.e. one month’s rental waiver for qualifying commercial properties, or half a month’s rental waiver for other non-residential properties (e.g. industrial and office properties). The remaining rent payable will be borne by the tenant.

^{1. If the lease commenced in 2018 or earlier, and the landlord was required to file an income tax return in YA2019, the period will be YA2019. If the lease commenced in 2019, and the landlord was required to file an income tax return in YA2020, the period will be YA2020. In any other case, the relevant period will be the rental relief period, i.e. 1 April to 31 July 2020 for qualifying commercial properties, or 1 April to 31 May 2020 for other non-residential properties.↩}

Expanded Powers of Rental Relief Assessors ↩

On 30 September 2020, the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) (Amendment No. 2) Bill came into force, expanding the powers of the rental relief assessors. Rental relief assessors can now also make determinations on unresolved disputes relating to the amount of rent to be waived under the framework, where the amount is affected by any of the following factors:

a) The amount of maintenance and service charges², especially where such charges are not explicitly listed in the lease or licence agreement

b) The amount that can be offset by assistance provided by the landlord earlier

c) Tenant(s) occupying the property for only a part of the relief period

d) Sub-division of the property, i.e. there are multiple sub-tenants, not all of whom may be eligible for the waivers

The expanded powers only apply to unresolved disputes involving any of the above, and landlords and tenants can make the application for such determinations. The rental relief assessors will not review existing arrangements that have been mutually agreed upon between landlords and tenants on the implementation of the rental waivers.

^{2. Maintenance and service charges are excluded from the rental waivers.↩}

Application Process ↩

Submission of Application

For assessment of tenant eligibility for rental relief and/or landlord eligibility for financial hardship

Landlords seeking assessment of tenants’ eligibility for Rental Relief and/or Additional Rental Relief, as well as landlords seeking to reduce the Additional Rental Relief on grounds of financial hardship, may use the following links to submit an application within 10 working days after receiving (a copy of) the notice of cash grant, which must be accompanied by documents and information as specified in the Registrar’s directives, which can be accessed here:

If applying on behalf of an entity, please use this link (CorpPass)
If applying as an individual, please use this link (SingPass)

For assessment of rental waiver amount

Landlords or tenants who require an assessment on the actual amount of rent to be waived may submit applications for a rental relief assessor’s determination, based on the timelines below.

a) If IRAS’ notice of cash grant, or copy of the notice, was received on or before 30 September 2020: Submit application by 14 October 2020.

b) If IRAS’ notice of cash grant, or copy of the notice, is received after 30 September 2020³: Submit application within 10 working days after receiving the notice. For example, if the notice is received on 1 October 2020, the application should be submitted by 15 October 2020.

Applicants may use the following links to submit an application, which must be accompanied by documents and information as specified in the forms below:

If applying on behalf of an entity, please use this link (CorpPass)
If applying as an individual, please use this link (SingPass)

For all Applications, the Registrar will acknowledge receipt of the application in a few days. If you require assistance on application matters, you may call the Registry during office hours at 1800-2255-772 (1800-CALL-RRA).

Service of Application and Acknowledgement

After submitting the application and receiving the Registrar’s acknowledgement, the applicant must serve a copy of the application, together with the acknowledgement, on all landlords (including the property owner, if the applicant is not the property owner), and tenants in the property within 5 working days after receipt of the acknowledgement. This can be done via email, registered post, internet-based messaging service, or via the recipients’ contact form on their website/blog/social media/social networking site. Within 1 working day after serving a copy of the application and Registrar’s acknowledgement as described on the related parties, the applicant must submit a declaration to the Registrar. (The Registrar’s acknowledgement email will set out the instructions on how such a declaration can be made.)

Next Steps after Submitting Application

If needed, the Registry will send further instructions for the applicant, such as submitting additional documents and information (where applicable). The Registry may also contact the applicant (and other relevant parties) to arrange a hearing, if it is necessary to help the rental relief assessor make a determination on the case.

The rental relief assessor’s determination will be binding on all landlords (including the property owner) and the tenant-occupier, and will not be appealable.

Response by Tenant-occupier/Landlord

The tenant-occupier/landlord may, no later than 5 working days after being served with a copy of the application for a rental relief assessor’s determination and the Registrar’s acknowledgement, submit to the Registrar a response to the application using the following links. The respondent must also serve the applicant a copy of the response via email, registered post, internet-based messaging service, or via the recipients’ contact form on their website/blog/social media/social networking site.

If applying on behalf of an entity, please use this link (CorpPass)
If applying as an individual, please use this link (SingPass)

^{3. The majority of qualifying property owners would have received the notice of cash grant by mid-August 2020. Qualifying property owners or tenants who have not received the notice may make manual applications to IRAS by 21 October 2020, at www.go.gov.sg/applicationcg. ↩}

Additional Resources (for reference only)↩

The prescribed forms relating to rental relief assessment are linked below for reference only. Please note that submissions to the Registry should be made using the links provided above on this page, with SingPass / CorpPass authentication.

Further Information on Application for Assessment