Case026: court acknowledged the validity of cancellation based on 3 months’ non-payment

Summary

  • Tokyo District Court acknowledged the validity of cancellation of building lease contract based on three months’ non-payment.

Parties of the Case

  • An individual (lender) vs. an individual (tenant)

Claims

  • Claim to surrender a building based on cancellation of lease contract

Location and Purpose of Use of the Building

  • a building in Tokyo

Rent

  • 73,000 yen per month

Common Service Expense

  • 8,000 yen per month

Circumstances

  • As the tenant did not pay the rent, the lender demanded to pay unpaid rent within 5 days, and manifested conditional intention to cancel the contract if the tenant did not pay them within the period.
  • The lender demanded 6 months’ rent as unpaid rent. However, the period of non-performance of paying was 4 months.
  • As the tenant only paid the rent for one-month within the period noticed, the lender demanded eviction based on cancellation of the lease contract.
  • The tenant argued that the amount the lender demanded exceeded the amount of accurate unpaid rent, and the cancellation was invalid.
  • The court denied the tenant’s allegations judging that demanding unpaid rent was valid within the limits of accurate unpaid rent even if the amount demanded exceeded that unless it was definitely indicated that the lender had intention to accept only payment of the full amount citing judgement of the Supreme Court on April 2, 1954, March 28, 1957 and March 9, 1962.
  • The court also judged that the relationship of mutual trust between the lessor and the tenant was dissolved considering that three months’ rent was still unpaid after payment by the tenant within the period noticed.
  • The court acknowledged that the lease contract was validly cancelled based on three months’ non-payment of the rent.

Comment

  • This is one of the cases of eviction that cancellation of building lease contract based on three months’ non-payment was acknowledged.