Legal Advice on Termination of Rental Agreement

Questioner

Can an agreement also be terminated orally if the contract states that the termination must be made in writing?

Lawyer

Dear questioner, In most cases, an agreement can be terminated in the same way as it was entered into. This applies in particular to consumers who order subscriptions and the like on the internet and who are subsequently expected to provide written notice of termination. Are you a consumer? What kind of agreement is your question about? and how did you enter into this agreement, and with a company or a private individual? Additional information is needed to provide a good answer.

Questioner

This is a rental agreement. The contract states that the termination must be done in writing. However, the tenant terminated the lease (unambiguously) verbally some time ago. Now the tenant is being asked to pay the rental term for the period in which the termination had not yet taken place. It is striking that the space in question was immediately rented out again.

Lawyer

Dear questioner, Is it a fixed-term tenancy agreement for occupancy? Did you immediately re-let after the verbal termination? In a fixed-term tenancy agreement, the situation may be arranged that the tenant leaves the rented property prematurely and what is then legally. Can you tell us a bit more about the type of contract and the associated conditions?

Questioner

Dear Monique, I am merely an intermediary between tenant and landlord. It concerns a storage space. The landlord immediately rented it out again after verbal termination. The issue is whether the tenant validly set up the space at the time (unambiguously in a long conversation), while the rental agreement stipulated that this had to be done in writing. Nothing else has been arranged about this.

Lawyer

Dear, if it concerns a company building/storage space that is not intended or accessible to the public, I quote huurgeschil.nl: ' Failure to meet the agreed termination requirements Even if the lease agreement states that the termination must be made by registered letter or bailiff's writ, the landlord cannot, under certain circumstances, rely on the lack of written termination in the context of an extension of the agreement due to an extension clause, if it is not disputed between the parties that the tenant has indicated in good time that he did not wish to make use of an extension of the agreement. The Court of Appeal in The Hague reached this conclusion in its ruling of 11 April 2003, file number 02/787 KA, in which the following sentence reflects the essence of the ruling: 'It has not been stated or demonstrated that there was any uncertainty at any time about the position of Juffermans (tenant, addition Huurgeschillen). The court is therefore of the opinion that it is not clear what interest Jager (landlord, addition Huurgeschillen) could have had in a termination by bailiff's writ or by registered letter in accordance with the lease agreement: after all, Juffermans' position was known to her. Jager should therefore have taken into account that, if no agreement could be reached with Juffermans on the conditions of a new agreement, she would have to look for another tenant. The grievances therefore fail'. The situation would of course have been different if the landlord had disputed that she had had discussions with the tenant in which termination of the lease had been discussed. The absence of the written document would then have been fatal to the tenant. ' From the fact that it was rented again and immediately, I conclude that the landlord does not dispute the verbally terminated agreement and for that reason a residual rent claim might not succeed, if the judge has to decide on it. The difference between the case as you present it and the case above is that in this case it is not about extension but about residual rent terms.

Questioner

Thank you so much! This is exactly the missing piece of the puzzle!