One has to draw a clear distinction between lease agreements for residential properties and those that are for commercial properties

We received the following in an email this last week.

“I signed a 2-year lease agreement with my landlord on the 27^th February 2018 and the lease agreement came into effect on the 1^st March this year. I simply cannot afford the rent and I wrote to my landlord on the 29^th June cancelling the lease and requesting repayment of my security deposit of R 28000.00. He has refused to refund me. What can I do?” 

You can not just pack up and move out.

The termination or cancellation of a commercial lease agreement/s is always a legal conundrum.

One of the matters that we specialise in is Consumer law and also in lease agreement cancellations and terminations.

It is a contract and must be dealt with correctly and legally if you want to cancel it or terminate it prematurely ie before its expiry date.

You cannot just cancel a lease agreement.

If you breach the lease and simply vacate and abandon the premises the High Court can grant the landlord an order for specific performance.

This can mean that the court orders you to return to the premises and pay the rental for the balance of the lease period. Alternatively, it can allow the landlord the right to cancel the lease because of your breach and grant an order for damages in favour of the landlord being equivalent to the rent due for the balance of the period.

The inconvenience for a landlord caused by an early cancellation will no doubt be annoying  but it is clear that a tenant has the RIGHT to cancel a lease

One of the matters that we specialise in is Consumer law and lease agreement terminations.

Here is a recent query that was received by The Legal Advice Office last week:

“Hi, Hugh. I refer to our telephone call. I bought a business last year in September and signed a three-year lease agreement for its premises with the landlord. I also signed as surety for my company which runs the business. The business is losing money each month and I need your advice and help on getting out of this lease. Can you please help me?”

We will try to answer this question in this blog.

To Stay or To Go: Is it Worth it?

Lease cancellations:

Section 14 of The Consumer Protection Act No 68 of 2008 (CPA):

In our last blog, we looked at the wording of the whole of section 14 (3) and commented extensively on its content and the background to the section.

Today we will concentrate on section 14 (4) of the CPA and also comment on section 14 as a whole as it relates to a fixed term contract and particularly the cancellation of lease agreements.