"If due to flood, fire, earthquake, tempest or any other acts of god, or any other force majeure reasons or for any reason beyond the reasonable control of human beings, PREMISES or any part thereof cannot be used and, or, occupied by LESSEE or if PREMISES or any part thereof is sealed or is rendered unfit for use and occupation by any statutory authority and, or, municipality, LESSEE shall not be liable to pay any Rent or any other amount, whatsoever, to LESSOR or the maintenance agency of COMPLEX, or any government authority or anybody, for such period."

Our tenant is invoking the above 'Force Majeure' clause present in the rental agreement ( agreement carried over from previous owners to us ). The property is in Gurgaon and the tenant is gulf-based mid-level IT firm with multiple offices across India. Tenant claims 40% reduction in revenues and wants a full waiver for 'x' months. We have not had a particularly nice experience with the tenant ; tenant already breached the agreement once by not paying the appreciated rent amount since last 18 months (we let it go since rentals in that area have somewhat significantly reduced).

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TL;DR

Should this pandemic be construed as an act of god in context of rental payments?

If the lessee is justified to invoke Force Majeure, for how long can they defer payment? Lock-down has technically been lifted.

Would really appreciate if anyone dealing with similar situation can share their thoughts and wisdom.