Non-payment of rent

A landlord has not been receiving rent from his tenant for quite some time now. He has sent him a judicial letter to pay rent, but the tenant has not paid his due.

Should the landlord bring a civil action demanding the payment of rental arrears, or should he institute judicial proceedings to evict the tenant from the premises once and for all?

First of all, before the landlord decides what procedures he should pursue, he must examine the terms and conditions of any existing lease agreement that he and the tenant may have signed.

This agreement may regulate specifically the mode of payment of the rent and may even cater for a dissolution of the lease agreement in similar circumstances. That is, the landlord may be entitled by the agreement to terminate the lease and resume possession of the tenement on the ground that the tenant has failed to perform his contractual obligations by paying the rent when it becomes due.

In these circumstances, the landlord may compel the tenant to pay the outstanding rental payments which shall be due as a civil debt. In this respect, he would have to bring a civil action in court demanding payment.

On the other hand, the landlord may demand the dissolution of the lease agreement together with damages for non-performance. If he decides to pursue this second course of action (unless the dissolution of the lease is specifically regulated by the lease agreement), the court would probably grant the tenant a reasonable time, according to circumstances, to pay the rental arrears, provided that the period would not be prejudicial to the landlord's interests.

If the lease has already entered the reletting stage, and the landlord still wishes to dissolve the lease agreement and resume possession of the tenement, he would have to bring an application before the Rent Regulation Board to this end. The board shall grant permission to the landlord to resume possession of the tenement if it is satisfied that the tenant failed to pay the rent punctually.

In determining whether or not the tenant has failed to pay the rent punctually, the rent laws provide that the tenant must have, in respect of two or more terms, failed to pay the rent within 15 days from the date on which the landlord has called upon him for payment.

Although the lease may have entered the reletting stage, the landlord shall still have a right to bring a separate civil action in court demanding payment of rent arrears from the tenant.

It should therefore be made very clear that bringing a civil action demanding the rent due and instituting judicial proceedings before the Rent Regulation Board requesting the eviction of the tenant to resume possession of the premises are two separate and distinct actions which are to be taken without prejudice to each other.

Finally, the landlord should be aware that the actions for payment of rents shall be barred, according to law, by the lapse of five years.

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