Rules introduced during the pandemic to protect businesses from being evicted by their landlords due to rent arrears are a headache for commercial property owners but there are other remedies at their disposal, a commercial property litigation expert says. Shams Rahman, a partner in the property & trusts litigation team at law firm Edwin Coe LLP, will tell ICAEW members at a webinar next week that difficult conversations around rent arrears are becoming more common the longer the pandemic goes on. While there was huge sympathy for companies who had struggled during the last year, particularly small companies who had racked up huge debt in rent holidays and retail businesses forced to close and furlough staff, Rahman says in some cases, tenants were abusing temporary rules protecting them from eviction. There was also a misconception among commercial property landlords that their hands were tied when it came to evicting commercial tenants who had fallen behind on their financial obligations, Rahman adds.