Since the coronavirus outbreak, Ms Lyn Lee has seen business across her Awfully Chocolate outlets and Sinpopo branches fall in revenue.

Adding to her troubles are battles she has had to fight with some of her landlords for her 17 tenancies.

Despite reduced footfall and the closure of retail outlets in malls, some landlords are still insisting on regular rental payments, as if it were business as usual, the lawyer-turned-entrepreneur told The Sunday Times.

So when a new law was passed to protect tenants from having their leases terminated during the Covid-19 pandemic for non-payment of rental, she was relieved.

Landlords will also have to unconditionally pass on their property tax rebate in full to their tenants. This works out to about one month of rent for most properties.

Those who fail to do so without reasonable excuse can face fines of up to $5,000 under the Covid-19 (Temporary Measures) Act.

Ms Lee said: "It comes as a huge relief. Without the new law, I'm sure many companies would have to close down within the next few weeks.

"But just imagine, we had to fight with some of these landlords for four months, just for them to pass down rebates given to them by the Government."

She cited Marina Bay Sands, where one of 14 Awfully Chocolate outlets is located, whose responses to requests for help, were "slow and unhelpful".

When the integrated resort closed its premises, the landlord told Ms Lee all tenants still had to pay a charge for "promotion fund and service charges", which amounted to between $3,000 and $4,000 a month for the Awfully Chocolate tenant.

She also charged that some landlords only became more responsive after the Government weighed in on the matter.

Ms Lee added that MBS offered her a rebate of about 30 per cent of Awfully Chocolate's base rent on March 13, "after much to-ing and fro-ing".

Asked for comment, a spokesman for MBS said it has been actively assisting its retailers during the ongoing COVID-19 situation through rental rebates, rent payment instalment plans, shorter trading hours and additional marketing support, which have been rolled out progressively.

"Awfully Chocolate, the tenant, has been receiving rental rebates since March. The store also received 100 per cent waiver of base rent for the period of closure from 7 April to 4 May, the same as with all other retailers in our mall," the spokesman added.

Several other landlords, such as Lendlease and Mapletree, were also initially unhelpful with passing on the property tax rebates, Ms Lee said.

Ms Jenny Khoo, head of asset operations at Lendlease, said the landlord is in the process of disbursing rebates to retailers at their malls, as well as the full property tax rebate that was announced in the Budget.

"We are committed to working with our retailers to deliver the most appropriate assistance and have worked with them to understand their circumstances. Other than rental rebates, other assistance includes flexible payment schemes or conversion of cash security deposits to banker's guarantees," she added.

Meanwhile, Mapletree responded with its previous announcements made in February that the landlord will be giving out rental rebates of up to half a month to its tenants at VivoCity, as well as in March, when it said it will be deferring payment for fixed rent of April.

However, some like Far East Organization have been "responsive, transparent and fair", said Ms Lee.

Since the Government's intervention, CapitaLand has also provided "some of the most comprehensive rebates, except for Ion Orchard, where it says its hands are tied because its shareholder is Sun Hung Kai", she added, referring to the Hong Kong company.

She said while tenants rely on landlords to be able to ply their goods, the relationship should not be one-sided and should be that of a partnership. "In such a crisis, they, more than anyone else, are in a position to help. This crisis will hopefully shake the landlords to change their way of thinking," said Ms Lee.

"When push comes to shove, this is the time when they need to help their stakeholders, the tenants, whose rental incomes have for years given them high yields and sky-high valuations."