Termination of a residential lease agreement unilaterally

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Anastasia Klimenkova (Lawyer)

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Author: Anastasia Klimenkova (Lawyer) (All articles by the author)

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Unilateral termination of a residential lease agreement is regulated by the norms of civil legislation of Russia. The procedure for terminating a lease agreement is carried out in stages. The list of grounds and reasons for termination of legal relations at the initiative of one of the entities is exhaustive.

Grounds for termination of a lease agreement

Legal relations arising from the contract may be terminated by agreement of the parties at any time. The reasons are indicated in Articles 619-620 and 687 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. According to the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, housing contracts can be terminated unilaterally on the following grounds:

presence of a court decision that has entered into force;
serious violations of the terms of the lease agreement.

Either party has the right to declare a desire to terminate the agreement if the document does not contain an indication of the duration of its validity. The main thing is to report this three months before the date of the proposed event.

Drawing up a termination agreement

How to correctly terminate a loan agreement? If the parties decide to peacefully terminate the contract, a special agreement is drawn up. It must indicate that the parties have no financial claims against each other.

Rules for drawing up an agreement

The document is drawn up in writing. The parties sign it. There is no need to register the document, even if the lease was long-term.

Data that must be indicated in the agreement:

surname, initials of one party;
surname, initials of the employer;
circumstances of termination;
no complaints.

Registration of the agreement

The law does not contain a mandatory rule that termination of a lease must be registered. But in the Unified State Register there will be a note indicating that the cooperation is valid.

Reasons for terminating a lease agreement

Both parties have the right to early termination of the contract: the lessor and the lessee. The list of reasons for termination at the initiative of the lessor includes the following circumstances:

Careless handling of real estate, causing destruction of the object or violation of its integrity.
Repeated violation of the terms of the lease agreement.
Late payment of rent. To terminate the contract unilaterally, two months of debt in a row is enough.

The list of reasons for termination at the initiative of the tenant includes the following circumstances:

Refusal to provide real estate for use.
Creating obstacles to the use of housing for its intended purpose.
When using residential premises, shortcomings were identified that were hidden by the lessor at the time of concluding the rental agreement for the premises. In this case, it is necessary to prove that the citizen would not have signed the document if he had known about the existence of these problems.
Violation by the owner of the residential premises of the conditions for carrying out current and major repairs.
Damage to property due to reasons beyond the control of the tenant (for example, natural disasters).
Violation of other terms of the signed lease agreement.

Agreements can be terminated unilaterally for other reasons if they are specified in the terms of the agreement.

How to consolidate your decision

Regardless of whether the decision is made to terminate the rental agreement or to maintain the legal relationship, further proceedings regarding the condition of the housing should be excluded. For this purpose, a transfer and acceptance certificate must be drawn up and signed, containing:

data of the parties to the agreement (information according to the passport, contact phone numbers);
place, date and time of drawing up the act;
grounds for termination of a contract or a claim regarding the condition of the housing;
terms and procedure for eliminating deficiencies by the tenant (if the agreement continues to be valid);

Attention! If there are no claims from the owner of the living space, a corresponding note should be made in the act. This will allow the tenant to be protected after the apartment rental agreement is terminated.

Procedure for terminating a residential tenancy agreement

The procedure for terminating a lease agreement is determined by the norms of civil law. According to the Code, the procedure for terminating such legal relations includes five stages:

Written notice to the other party of the intention to terminate the lease.
Waiting for a written response or real action from the other party.
Drawing up a settlement agreement.
Acceptance of residential premises.
Making a court decision (used if it was not possible to resolve the issue voluntarily).

Notification of the defendant about termination of the contract

The written complaint must contain a list of existing problems and a requirement to stop the violations identified by the tenant, indicating the deadline for their elimination.

It should also be stated that if the lessor refuses within the specified period of time, the applicant’s side will forcibly cancel the contract.

The appeal of the injured party must contain the signature of the person who accepted the application (if it was delivered in person). If it was sent by mail (registered mail), you must receive notification of receipt of the document by the other party.

In the future, this will be considered confirmation of the notification of the guilty party of an attempt to terminate the contract for valid reasons (in the event of litigation).

If the tenant wants to terminate the lease agreement, it is necessary to notify the owner of the real estate about the tenant's move three months in advance. It is best to do this in writing in order to later prove in court that the other party was notified in a timely manner.

According to the current legislation, if the tenant does not notify the owner of the apartment in a timely manner, in case of early eviction, he is obliged to pay rent until new tenants move in.

Waiting for a written response or real action from the other party

The legislation does not establish a single period of time during which the defendant must send a response to the complaint in writing. For this purpose, the concept of a reasonable period is used.

This period of time includes a period sufficient to complete the following actions:

searching for other residents;
elimination of violations identified by the tenant.

Drawing up a settlement agreement

Even in cases where only one party initiates the termination of the contractual relationship, the issue can be resolved out of court. To do this, it is necessary to draw up a settlement agreement.

You can specify one of the following items in the document:

A paper including the elimination of existing deficiencies with an indication of the time frame for their correction.
Agreement to terminate the contract.

The document is prepared on a general basis - in writing. The presence of a notary in this matter is not necessary.

Acceptance of residential premises

When moving out, it is necessary to draw up a transfer and acceptance certificate, which must list the following details:

personal information about participants in legal relations;
place and date of drawing up the act;
drawing up a detailed description of the residential premises transferred to the owner (location address);
list of claims;
procedure for canceling identified defects;
procedure for settlements if it is impossible to eliminate deficiencies.

If there are no claims to the accepted property, this must be noted in the deed. This will protect the parties from further claims from each other.

Adjudication

According to the norms of civil procedural legislation, a statement of claim is filed with the district court at the defendant’s place of residence. If a claim is filed against a citizen, the place of consideration of the case is established at the place of temporary or permanent residence of the guilty person.

The claim can be filed at the plaintiff’s place of residence if he has young children or needs to care for a sick family member.

If one of the parties to the case is a person engaged in individual entrepreneurship or an organization, the case is considered by an arbitration court. In this case, the place of filing the claim is determined by the location of the legal entity or the place of registration of the businessman.

By mutual agreement

One of the main principles of civil legislation is the principle of freedom of contract (Article 1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). Among other things, it means that the parties have the right to change or terminate any contract at any time, unless the law states otherwise. And in the event that both the employer and the lessor wish to terminate the tenancy agreement, they have the right to enter into an agreement between themselves on this - and the tenancy will terminate.

The law does not determine the conditions under which the contract will be terminated in this case - they remain entirely at the discretion of the parties. Moreover, if the agreement is mutual, the parties are not obliged to be guided by any of the above grounds - their will is sufficient.

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Agreement

The mutual will to terminate the contract is formalized through an additional agreement. The only requirement that the law sets for it is that it be executed in the same form as the main contract, that is, in simple written form. Otherwise, the parties are free to write it however they wish.

However, in practice additional the agreement usually has the following structure:

Title with reference to the main agreement.
Place and time of imprisonment.
Personal information of both parties, including full names, addresses, and, if desired, passport information.
A clear and unambiguous desire to terminate the contract.
Description of related procedures (vacation of the premises, handing over of keys, etc.).
The procedure for repaying debts or returning overpayments (if the employer paid in advance).
Signatures of the parties and their transcript.

ATTENTION: The given structure is for indicative purposes only. The parties have the right to indicate in the agreement other clauses that do not contradict the law.

List of required documents

The statement of claim and accompanying documents must meet the requirements of current legislation. The application must contain the following information:

Information about the court, the plaintiff and the defendant.
Circumstances of the case.
The essence of the claims.
Legislation regulating this issue.
The plaintiff's claim against the defendant.
Appendix indicating the list of attached evidence.

The following documents must be attached to the claim:

original lease agreement;
documents confirming the plaintiff’s attempts to resolve the issue pre-trial (notification or claim with a mark of receipt by the other party);
evidence of violations of the contract committed by the plaintiff;
expert opinion on the assessment of harm caused;
an extract from the house register about debts for utility payments;
bank statement confirming the absence of money transfers from the tenant for renting the apartment.

What should the owner do?

If the apartment owner himself wants to end the rental relationship, he has two main options.

Without trial

If the lessor in the contract has provided for the possibility of unilateral termination on his own initiative, then by virtue of Art. 450.1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, such a condition will be valid. In this situation, the landlord, within the period established by the contract, sends a notice of refusal to fulfill obligations under the rental agreement, has the right to demand eviction from the tenant, and also, in self-defense, the right (Article 12 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation) to change the keys in the apartment.

In addition, termination of the contract is allowed at the initiative of the lessor, but with the consent of the lessee. Exactly how this is done is described above.

Forced eviction

If it is not possible to reach an amicable agreement, the landlord can file a lawsuit in court and demand not only termination of the contract, but also forced eviction. In addition to the grounds described above, provided for by the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, you can go to court if the contract stipulates the landlord’s right to early termination.

The procedure for termination through court will be as follows:

The lessor is preparing a statement of claim in accordance with Art. 131 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation and pays the state duty.
The claim and the documents attached to it under Art. 132 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation (receipt for payment of the duty, copies of the contract, other evidence) are sent to the court by mail or transferred to the court office in person.
The claim is accepted for consideration and a hearing time is set.
The judge agrees with the plaintiff and satisfies his demands.
After the decision has entered into force, the plaintiff has the right to contact the bailiffs and demand that they organize the forced eviction of the tenant in the prescribed manner.

Time frame for consideration of the case

According to the current civil legislation, district courts must consider such cases within two months. Cases in arbitration courts are conducted within a three-month period.

These periods are considered minimum. If for some reason the parties cannot appear in court, or additional expertise is needed to properly investigate the issue, the deadlines are shifted.

In relation to rental housing, the tenant has more opportunities to terminate the contract unilaterally. The main thing is to notify the landlord in writing about the upcoming eviction three months before the move-out date. The landlord will be able to evict a tenant before the end of the contract only if the tenant has materially violated the terms of the occupancy agreement.

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How can an employer terminate a relationship?

If the employer wishes to terminate the employment relationship, he must act according to the following algorithm.

Notification

The law specifies that the landlord must be warned of the upcoming termination of the contract. The period for this warning is three months or more. If it is necessary to terminate the contract earlier, then it can only be terminated by mutual agreement in the manner described above.

Drawing up a deed and handing over the keys

The next step should be to draw up an acceptance certificate. It is prepared in any form, the main thing is that it indicates what condition the apartment is in after it is returned to the landlord. Without this document, it is quite possible that after the end of the contractual relationship, the owner of the apartment will demand compensation for damage and the tenant will not be able to prove that there was no damage.

The act itself is drawn up with approximately the following structure:

Name.
Date and place of compilation.
Personal data of the parties.
A description of the condition of the apartment - or simply an indication that the landlord has no claims against the tenant.
Signatures with transcript.

The act is drawn up in two copies for each party. If desired, the parties can include in it the signatures of witnesses who will confirm that the housing is in exactly the condition as described.

The last step is handing over the keys. In the simplest case, the employer simply passes them from hand to hand.

IMPORTANT: If there is a suspicion that claims are possible in the future, it is better to formalize the transfer of keys using approximately the same act - or at least with the help of a receipt. In it, the renter must indicate that he received all the keys and in good condition.

Consequences of termination

Note! The main consequence of termination of tenancy is the eviction of the tenant and his family members from the occupied apartment (Article 688 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

Forced eviction is an extreme measure that the court resorts to only after fully examining all the circumstances and reasons for the violations committed by the tenant.

In paragraph 38 of the resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation “On some issues that have arisen in judicial practice when applying the Housing Code of the Russian Federation” dated July 2, 2009 No. 14, explanations are given on the grounds for termination of social rent. In particular, the Plenum explains:

non-payment of fees must occur for 6 consecutive months;
courts should assess the validity of the reasons why the fee was not paid.

It is noteworthy that these clarifications are also applied by the courts in relation to commercial hiring (see, for example, the decision of the Leninsky District Court of Cheboksary, Chuvash Republic dated May 16, 2018 in case No. 2-1693/2018).