New laws to recover premises from overstaying tenants

The Cabinet has approved a proposal to prepare a preliminary Draft Bill to speed up the process to recover premises that have been given on a lease.

The Government said the proposal has been made after taking into consideration renting property complexes, the development of rented complexes, and the impact on the national economy due to such acts.

Thereby, a Draft Bill has been prepared to recover the possession of complexes given on a lease basis and to impose new laws.

A preliminary Draft Bill in this regard has been prepared by the Legal Consultative Committee on House Rent appointed by the Minister of Justice.

The Government said by imposing the proposed law, the delays in legal procedures that are caused in court cases on General Rent and Eviction Cases will be prevented by making redress to the Lessors under a systematic procedure within a short period of time. 

Accordingly, the proposal made by the Minister of Justice to advise the Legal Draftsman to prepare a Draft Bill in this regard has been approved by the Cabinet. 

Commenting on the proposed law, Justice Ministry Coordinating Secretary Attorney Shamir Zavahir stated that 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,” Zavahir said.

He said that the changes that are being introduced will 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. (NewsWire)

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