Case003: court acknowledged the validity of cancellation based on 2 months’ non-payment

Summary

  • Tokyo District Court acknowledged the validity of cancellation of building lease contract based on 2 months’ non-payment.

Parties of the Case

  • Ex owner of a bar (lessor) vs. a manageress of a bar(lessee)

Claims

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

Location and Purpose of Use of the Building

  • A bar in Tokyo

Rent

  • 50,000 yen per month

Circumstances

  • The lender operated a bar and hired the lessee as a manageress of the bar, but the lender decided to close the bar because of poor business performance.
  • Therefore, the lessee leased the bar. As the lessee did not pay the rent of 12,5000 yen, the lessor agreed to reduce the rent to 50,000 yen for limited period of two years. The average rent for the bar was over 200,000 yen, so the rent was extremely low.
  • However, the lessee did not pay the rent of 50,000 yen for months. Although the lessee sometimes paid the rent, the rent of one to three months was constantly unpaid.
  • The rent of two months was not paid when the lessor noticed to the lessee about cancellation of the lease contract. The lessee paid one month rent by the period noticed, so one month rent was not paid when the cancellation became valid.
  • The lessee argued that she could not pay the rent because of illness, and that the lessor promised to take care of her for life.
  • The court judged that particular circumstance did not exist that the non-payment did not dissolve the relationship of mutual trust between the parties of the lease agreement.

Comment

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