A new court decision was made: there is no rent for the period of restrictions due to the coronavirus epidemic

By: Trademagazin Date: 2022. 11. 02. 10:48

There is no rent fee for the period that the tenant kept the rental property closed due to the coronavirus epidemic and the government measures taken to curb it. This is a significant change compared to the previous judicial practice, as previously the courts recognized general economic and social changes as force majeure only in a very narrow circle – in the case of the existence of a specific cause-and-effect relationship. The background of the decision of the Metropolitan Court was summarized by the lawyers of Réti, Várszeg and Partner Law Offices, PwC Legal.

The current decision is a milestone: because of the coronavirus epidemic, you can be freed from the contractual obligation

One of the basic principles of contract law, rooted in Roman law, is that contractual obligations must be fulfilled, risk-taking is an inherent part of contracts. Events that make performance difficult in themselves, such as an economic recession, are generally not considered such exceptional circumstances. Accordingly, according to domestic court practice, the contracting party must not ignore the possibility of changes in market conditions when concluding the contract, and must bear the resulting commercial risk.

Compared to the above general practice, a decision of the tribunal published in 2021 represented a cautious step forward, which did not yet accept the coronavirus epidemic itself, but the previous bird flu epidemic as force majeure. Moreover, in the case on which the aforementioned decision was based, it was about the version of the bird flu epidemic that only affected animals, and the party claiming force majeure was also a poultry trader.