THE ACT IS NOT THE ONLY PROOF OF THE RELEASE OF THE LEASED PROPERTY

The Property Relations Committee of St. Petersburg filed a lawsuit against LLC for the recovery of rent arrears. The Committee stated that the defendant owed 12 million rubles for the period from 2015 to 2019. The company claims that it vacated the premises back in 2017, but the landlord evaded drawing up the act of acceptance and transfer (No. A56-10933/2022).

The court of first instance sided with the defendant and refused to satisfy the claim. The court explained that the plaintiff does not have the right to demand rent for the period of delay in returning the premises, since he himself evaded its acceptance. In addition, the court pointed to the expired statute of limitations for all disputed relations earlier than 2019.

The Court of appeal completely ignored the defendant's arguments about sending a notice of the release of the premises in 2017 and partially satisfied the claim, limiting the recovery to the limitation period. As a result, the defendant is obliged to repay the debt only for the period in 2019. The court noted that even if the defendant left the premises in 2017, this does not exempt him from the obligation to pay rent until the moment of registration of the act of return of the leased property. The district court also agreed with these arguments.

The judge of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, E.E. Borisova, recalled that the obligation of the parties to draw up an act of acceptance and transfer does not indicate a ban on confirming the actual release of the premises with other evidence. The Court of Appeal did not take into account this legal position and unreasonably ignored the arguments of the defendant, in connection with which Judge Borisova concluded that there were grounds for reviewing judicial acts in the case and referred the dispute to the Judicial Board for Economic Disputes. The Supreme Court will consider the case on October 10, 2023.