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COVID19: Cyprus freezes evictions of non-paying tenants

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The government has decided to freeze eviction of tenants who fail to pay their rent until the end of May due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Cabinet approved a bill amending the Rent Law, freezing all eviction notices and court procedures, essentially making it illegal to evict tenants who fail to pay their rents.

The government took the decision after considering difficulties households and businesses are facing after it issued decrees imposing restrictions on free movement and forced closure of all retail stores excluding supermarkets, bakeries and kiosks.

The bill will cover non-payment of rent after March 1.

At the end of January, Parliament approved an amendment to the rent control law making it easier for landlords to evict tenants who fall into arrears or deliberately don’t pay their dues.

The law regulates out-of-court settlements in disputes over property rental agreements.

The new law gave landlords the ability to evict bad tenants within 3 months after filing the case with a court.

According to the current law, the landlord has the right to begin the eviction process even if the tenant has just one rent payment delayed for more than 21 days.

After the landlord files his case, tenants have 14 days to pay their debts in order to terminate the eviction process.