By: Danos & Associates
Recent changes to the Rent Control Law of 1983 mean that it is now easy and quick to evict a tenant who does not pay his/her rent. Before these amendments that came into force on the 31st of January 2020, the process to evict a tenant for not paying his/her rent was a lengthy one as any tenant could simply deny the existence of the debt which would then lead to a lengthy Court process. However, under the provisions of the new law, the burden of proof is now onto the tenant who has to prove that he has indeed paid the rent. If the tenant fails to provide proof that he/she has paid the rent, the Court will issue a Court judgment in favour of the landlord in a quick and swift manner.
This new process is fast-track assuming that the tenant does not provide proof he has indeed paid the rents in question. The tenant is not even given the opportunity to file a defense to the application against him/her if he/she has not provided proof that the rents have been paid. Proof of payment must be filed to the Court Registrar simultaneously with the submission of the defense of the tenant. Payment can be made to the landlord or to the accounting department of the Court. The Court Registrar will accept the defense of the tenant only when convinced that payment has indeed taken place and proven by relevant documents.
This simplified process means that the Court does not have to deal in a lengthy manner with unfounded and fabricated allegations that the rents have indeed been paid. This simplified and fast track process allows landlords to evict in a swift manner non-paying tenants and the Courts no longer have to waste time on dealing with defenses with no merits which simply aim to allow the tenant to delay eviction.
If the tenant does not provide proof of payment, the Court will issue an eviction Court order requiring the tenant to vacate the premises within a period not less than 90 days. These new procedures remove the need from the landlords and the Court to unnecessarily deal with clear cases of non-paying tenants and speed up the process.
