“Tenants will not be evicted in any case if they fail to pay the rent during a lockdown declared by the Cabinet of all public facilities. The court will later decide how to pay the overdue rent as per each case’s circumstances,” states the latest decree issued amending some of the provisions of Law No. 35/1978 regarding real estate rental, wherein a new clause to section 1 of article 20 has been included.
According to sources a new comprehensive court department would be established for all rental litigations, and the lockdown period will not be included in the grace period given by law, as it will be calculated only from the day when the cabinet decides to resume normal life activities.
The Chairman of comprehensive court, Adel Boresli, issued a decision which cancelled all rent departments in all courts, including comprehensive and partial ones. It established new departments at the comprehensive court and the hearings will begin from 11am.
Accordingly, all the current pending rental cases would be referred to new department, following a hearing schedule that has been already set. The amendments come under Law Number 15/2020 and is effective from 12th March 2020, implying that it is applicable to cases that happened during lockdown.
