“Features of national legal consciousness and the impact of New Year’s holidays on it, or how the New Year can make a clear condition of the contract unclear” — Tatyana Tereshchenko for Zakon.ru
The upcoming holidays, of course, give an occasion to share a good mood and curiosities of judicial practice.
The gist of the matter
The tenant — owner right has missed the specified contract period from notice of non renewal of lease agreement non-residential premises, but felt that the time skip is negligible, we can ignore the terms of the contract. The court agreed with this.
Circumstances of the dispute
Between two entrepreneurs — the plaintiff (tenant) and the defendant (landlord) — on February 1, 2017 concluded a lease agreement N 1/2017 (hereinafter — the contract), under the terms of which the landlord provides non-residential premises to the tenant for a fee for temporary use.
Paragraph 2.1 of the agreement provides that the agreement is concluded for 11 months. If three months before the end of the lease term neither party declares its refusal to extend the contract, it is considered extended for the same period and under the same conditions. The number of specified extensions of the contract term is not limited. Clause 7.3 of the agreement provides for its termination by agreement of the parties or in accordance with the procedure established by the agreement.
On October 19, 2017 the plaintiff (lessee) handed the defendant notice No. 12 on termination of the contract, in which he notified the defendant of the refusal to extend the contract ..., indicating that the lessee's obligations under the contract terminate on 31.12.2017.
By letter dated February 1, 2018, the landlord informed the plaintiff that on October 19, 2017 he received a letter in which the plaintiff expressed his intention to terminate the contract, but indicated that on October 1, 2017 the contract was extended for 11 months.
Due to the disagreement of the parties regarding the fate of the lease agreement, the dispute was referred to the court.