‘ Developer has not completed my villa’

In February 2016, I bought a villa and paid 40 per cent of its value to the developer, who pledged to hand over the villa in February last year. However, only 30 per cent of the work has been completed till date. Four months ago, the developer sent an email stating that Covid- 19 was the reason for the delay. A month ago, he sent the same message again, adding that forcemajeure under the law allows him to delay the project. What is my legal position? I want to cancel the contract and recover my money.

Force majeure is an unexpected event whose consequences cannot be averted or avoided. Article 273 of the Civil Transactions Law states: “In contracts binding on both sides, if a force majeure arises thatmakes the implementation of the obligation impossible ... the creditor may terminate the contract provided the debtor is aware of it.” Article 249 of the same law, which addresses an accident that rarely occurs, says that if exceptional public circumstances result in making the execution of a contracted obligation, if not impossible, burdensome to the debtor, a court may reduce the burdensome obligation to reasonable limits. Any agreement to the contrary is void.

In general, in the event that one of the contracting parties is unable to implement his contractual obligations due to the spread of the coronavirus or the exceptional measures taken to limit that epidemic, he must prove his claim after the matter is brought before the judiciary. Accordingly, the court will check the contract registered with the Lands and Properties Department regarding the completion date and the completion rate.

As per your information, the completion rate didn’t exceed 30 per cent since 2016 until nowand even before the COVID- 19 situation ( since this situation arose only inMarch and ended by May). This gives a clear indication that the seller delayed in fulfilling his obligation and your request to terminate the contract is based on legal grounds.

Consequently, the two parties of the dispute shall return to the state they were in before the contracting, the most important of which is the return of the price paid by the purchaser. Moreover, if the seller proves that there is a force majeure that makes the contract impossible to execute anymore, then it will also be in your favour to terminate the contract.