Case007: court denied the validity of cancellation based on 2 months’ non-payment but acknowledged that based on 3 months’ non-payment

C O N T E N T S

Judgement of the Tokyo District Court on July 30, 2009 (Case Number: 2009-WA-3224)

Tokyo District Court denied the validity of cancellation of building lease contract based on 2 months’ non-payment but acknowledged that based on 3 months’ non-payment.

Lead Co., Ltd. (lender) vs. Chikyu-club 2000 Specified Nonprofit Corporation (tenant)

As the tenant did not pay the rent for two months, the lender demanded to pay two-months’ unpaid rent within 5 day. As the tenant did not pay them, the lender cancelled the lease agree-ment.
As the tenant did not pay the rent for another one month, the lender demanded to pay three-months’ unpaid rent within 5 days and cancelled the lease agreement to make sure of cancellation.
After the cancellation, the tenant paid 3 months’ rent.
The court judged that 2 months’ arrearage was not enough to dissolve the relationship of mutual trust between the lessor and the tenant considering that the tenant paid the rent on time for about 7 years and a half and the tenant’s deposit was 4,260,000 yen (larger than the amount of 10 months’ rent). The court denied the validity of cancellation based on 2 months’ non-payment.
However, the court acknowledged the validity of cancellation based on 3 months’ non-payment even after taking all circumstances into consideration.

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