Cabinet nod for new law to recover premises given on lease hassle free

The Cabinet has granted approval to a paper submitted by Justice Minister M.U.M Ali Sabry to draft a piece of new legislation to speed up the recovery of premises given on lease. The new law seeks to introduce a procedure whereby a landlord who seeks to recover possession of a premises given on an executed lease can obtain a decree nisi entitling him to the premises at the outset of a case.

The current procedure to recover possession of a premises given on rent is a time-consuming Rent and Ejectment action which is filed in the District Court and can typically take several years to conclude.

The proposed changes to the law are based on the recommendations made by the Advisory Committee to review Rent Law which was appointed by the Minister of Justice as part of the Minister’s Justice Sector Reform Programme.

Director of the Justice Sector Reforms programme Shamir Zavahir said ,“the rent laws in Sri Lanka are reflective of a different era where the entire focus of the law was to tilt the balance firmly in favour of the tenant.yet,over the years the rent laws of this Country have caused severe inconvenience and injustice to the owners of properties as the law and the procedure has been abused by tenants seeking to gain an unfair advantage over property owners. The changes that are being introduced seek to strike a balance between protecting a tenant and giving property owners an efficient and speedy mechanism to recover possession of their premises when a tenant seeks to wrongfully hold on to possession in circumstances where they are not legally entitled to do so,”