The House legal committee on Wednesday discussed proposalsto strengthen property owners’ rights to evict tenants who refuse to pay theirrent. The proposed legislation, submitted by MPs Nicos Nouris, GiorgosGeorgiou, Efthimios Diplaros and Marios Mavrides, aims to overhaul outdatedtenancy legislation and make procedures more effective when tenants fail tomeet their contractual obligations.
In a statement after the session, Nouris welcomed the factthat all sides agreed that the legislation really needs to be modernised.
“The rent law was introduced after the tragic events of the1960s and 70s in the Republic of Cyprus, with the intention of protectingtroubled citizens, who mainly rented business premises, from eviction and fromunreasonable rent increases,” he said.
“Conditions have changed and unfortunately over the courseof time, too many problems have arisen from tenants who take advantage of thelegislation’s weaknesses.”
The draft law, he said, was help those owners who are tiedto bad tenants.
The proposals primarily seek to introduce an out-of-courtprocedure by which the landlord can, without initially involving the court,hand a claim form to a tenant who has not paid the rent. If there is no paymentwithin 21 days, a debtor would have the right to seek a 90-day extension, butafter that expired the case would then be filed with the court.
Most importantly, once at court judges would issue a decisionto evict within six months.
Nouris said owners, if they want to speed up the processbecause they want to use their premises for business, could repossess them inthree months if they are willing to waive their claim for unpaid rent.