My friend told me he found out that one of his tenants had subletting his flat without telling him. The tenant said, as long as I am paying the rent on time, why do you care? This is incorrect. According to contract law, if the tenant subleases the flat without approval from the landlord, the landlord can terminate the contract. However, if the landlord knows about the sublease and does nothing about it for 6 months, it is automatically deemed as approval, and he may not terminate the contract using this reason.
Contract Law Article 224
Subject to consent of the lessor, the lessee may sublease the lease item to a third party.Where the lessee subleases the lease item, the leasing contract between the lessee and the lessor remains valid, and if the third party causes damage to the lease item, the lessee shall compensate for the losses.Where the lessee subleases the lease item without the consent of the lessor, the lessor may terminate the contract.Edgar Choi is a law graduate of the Fudan University. Edgar is the author of 4 Chinese books: Financial Law, Economic Law, Commercial Law and Intellectual Property Law In A Minute, to be published by Tsinghua University Press and one textbook: Business Ethics.
Edgar has been interviewed by Bloomberg and Timeout on China labour law.
Edgar is the legal advisor of International Financial Techonology Academy, World Blockchain and Fintech Foundation and Esports International Group.
Edgar can be contacted by scanning the QR code below, searching WeChat ‘edgarwlchoi’, and by email ‘edgarchoilaw@gmail.com’.
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