COURT PASSES LANDMARK JUDGEMENT ON RENT REDUCTION

  • 17/03/2021

Kuwait City : In a landmark ruling that could have wide implications, the Court of Appeals considering rents of idle nurseries, reduced the monthly rents of these leased properties by three-quarters.Tenants of nurseries, who had not been paying their monthly rents and had also refused to vacate their leased government properties, had appealed to the court to find a solution to their predicament.In their petition, the nursery tenants had cited that curfews, lockdowns and other measures introduced by the government to prevent the spread of coronavirus infection, had prevented their normal business operations. They claimed that under such circumstances, it was illogical for the government to claim rents for the period when they had also not permitted business operations.The new ruling  has now set a precedent and opens the door for owners of various other businesses affected by the government-imposed closure to claim similar relief from the courts.


Owners of businesses can now claim a reduction in their rents from property owners, citing the court ruling that the shut-down of business by the government was an unprecedented ‘force majeure’. Lawyers and legal experts have stated that business owners whose operations were affected by the shutdown can file lawsuits to obtain rulings to reduce the rents of their rented properties during the period that it was not used due to restrictions imposed by the government.A specialist in constitutional, administrative and financial law, Dr. Faisal Al-Haidar, said that the ruling by the Court of Appeal on Wednesday, “struck at the heart of the issue and brought relief from the exploitation by landlords”. He added that “the court has been fair to the nursery owners who had a lease contract, and the question that imposes itself is whether the tenant benefited from the rented nursery while the country was facing a pandemic that affected the whole world and caused the paralysis of most activities, including nurseries”.

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