Mediation in Rental Disputes During the Corona (Covid 19) Process

Disputes arising from lease agreements are subject to the mediation process if both parties are merchants. In other cases, legal problems arising from the rental relationship can be resolved by using an optional mediation process. Resolving disputes arising from the rental relationship through a mediator has many advantages for both the lessor and the tenant. Mediation is the name of the method that provides an amicable and definitive solution in terms of low cost, time, confidentiality and protection of the relationship. Matters resolved in mediation cannot be subject to litigation later.

The voluntary mediation process arising from lease agreements begins when both parties choose a mediator or when the other party accepts the mediator chosen by one party.

Due to the pandemic, a ban on termination and eviction requests for workplace leases has been imposed for four months from March 1, 2020 to June 30, 2020. Since this regulation does not eliminate the obligation to pay rent, rents continue to operate and the problem remains. Likewise, enforcement proceedings for residential rents have stopped until June 15, 2020, but rental fees continue to be processed.

Due to the measures taken throughout the country during the Covid-19 epidemic, the problem of what will happen to workplace rent receivables has arisen. Since businesses such as restaurants, cafes, wedding halls, gyms, cinemas, stores in shopping malls, barbers and hairdressing salons cannot operate at all, what is the status of the workplace lease agreement in this process? Is the rent receivable still continuing? Can the lessor collect this receivable? Questions like these are frequently asked. In accordance with the Turkish Code of Obligations, the lessor must keep the leased property at the tenant’s disposal during the lease period. On the one hand, what will the tenant do, who cannot make a profit because he cannot use his workplace and therefore cannot pay the rent? On the other hand, what will the property owner, whose only source of income is rent, do? Considering all these possible problems, a mediation process that will be carried out confidentially through negotiations will be the best solution method in which the parties can understand each other, empathize, and maintain their relations afterwards.

The lessor and the tenant have the opportunity to resolve this problem amicably and with the help of a mediator. The first thing to do is to contact a mediator. Particularly during the Covid 19 epidemic, the parties may also prefer ‘Mediation Centers’ with suitable physical conditions, where social distance can be maintained, and with large meeting rooms.

Applications for mediation can be made from offices in courthouses, or via the internet from the mediator’s/mediation center’s website.

In accordance with the Mediation Law, the parties may change the rent amount, terminate the contract under the conditions they have determined, or suspend the contract for a period of time in the presence of an official mediator.

If the parties reach an agreement by negotiating the dispute arising from the rental relationship through mediation, the mediation agreement document will be considered as a court decision and a lawsuit cannot be filed later on the agreed issues; The dispute will be finalized once and for all.