Question:
My tenancy agreement expires in July. It states in the agreement: “IF EITHER
OF THE CONCERNED PARTIES WISHES TO TERMINATE THIS
CONTRACT HE MUST INFORM THE OTHER PARTY BY REGISTERED
LETTER THREE MONTHS BEFORE THE FIXED DATE OF
TERMINATION”.
In my opinion it means: if I want to terminate the agreement,
then I shall give a notice, pay for three months and after I’m free. The owner
does not agree, he threatens me about the courts, black lists and so on. The
arguing is because he thinks that “fixed date of termination” is the date of
expiration of the agreement i.e. July. Thus, it turns out that if I had not informed
him in April, the agreement can not be cancelled and then I must pay him,
although I can not live there. I don’t mind to leave the deposit and even to pay
for three months of the agreement. But he wants the deposit plus 6 months rent.
Who is right in our case?
Answer:
An agreement should reveal what was the intention of the parties upon the date of the
conclusion of the agreement between them (i.e. upon signing). Since your agreement
states that a notice must be provided if in case you wish to leave your property then
that notice has to be provided to the other party prior to the time stated, which in your
case is 3 months. Since you did not provide the said notice as provided in your
Tenancy Agreement, then you have to verify whether your tenancy agreement is
automatically renewed. It is also important to note that your Tenancy Agreement
should also refer to the cases where you wish to leave the property and terminate the
rental agreement at any time of the period rental, and what happens in such situations.
In any case, all the rents need to be settled until the day that the notice covers, i.e three
months.
However, the deposit must be returned back to you in case no damages were
caused to the property due to your fault. The deposit is only paid to safeguard the
condition of the rented property and it is not calculated as a rent, unless otherwise
agreed between the Landlord and the Tenant. The most important for you it is to
verify, whether you are a Tenant according to a Tenancy Agreement, i.e. whether it is
automatically renewed, or whether you obtain Rights just by continuing staying in the
rented property. In the first case, your situation will be governed by Contracts Law,
whereas in the second case, your situation will be governed by the Rent Law of
Cyprus. Moreover, the payment of 6 months’ rent in advance seems to be fairly
unreasonable unless such a payment is covered by your Tenancy Agreement.