Slovakia: Non-payment of rent during the Corona crisis

As part of the package of measures to mitigate the effects of the crisis caused by COVID-19, the Slovak Parliament adopted a law to protect tenants from termination of the lease by the landlord in cases where the tenant is unable to pay the rent. 

The law deprives landlords of the right to unilaterally terminate the lease with the tenant of a residential and/or commercial premise on the grounds that the tenant is in default of payment of the rent and related payments (utilities).

The tenant’s default must occur in the period from 1 April 2020 to 30 June 2020.

The tenant is obliged to provide the landlord with sufficient credible and timely evidence of the reason for the tenant’s delay in the payment of rent and related payments.

The statutory prohibition of termination applies to all types of lease relationships, regardless of whether they were concluded by natural persons for living purposes or by natural or legal persons for business purposes.

This is not to be understood as a postponement of payments of the rent and related payments by the tenant and the tenant is therefore still obliged to pay his liabilities to the landlord in an orderly and timely manner. However, non-payment of the rent is not a reason for termination of lease by the landlord. In case of non-payment of the rent the landlord is entitled to default interests and/or the contractual penalty if one has been agreed in the contract.

The tenant will be obliged to pay the unpaid rent by 31 December 2020 at the latest.

The impossibility of termination of the lease only refers to the impossibility of termination due to non-payment of the rent, the other contractual reasons for termination of the lease remain unaffected.

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