“Impact of Covid-19 outbreak on contracts”
Asst. Prof. Cem Özcan, Lecturer at Department of Civil Law, Faculty of Law, and Director of Vocational School of Justice, Izmir University of Economics (IUE), said that termination and evacuation would not be requested due to the fact that the rental fee is not paid in the workplace rents until June 30, but that would only prevent the termination and evacuation until that date. Özcan delivered the “Impact of Covid – 19 Epidemic on Contracts” titled seminar as part of the “Online Seminars on the Impact of Covid-19 Coronavirus on Law” initiated by the Faculty of Law.
Özcan stated that with the provisional Article 2 of the Law No. 7226, the termination and evacuation will not be requested due to the fact that no rent is paid in terms of workplace rents until 30 June. Özcan said, “this provision does not mean that the consequences of contrariety to debt will not occur for tenants after the specified date, it only prevents termination and evacuation between these dates. Tenants in workplaces that have lost revenue due to the situation and circulars experienced in rental contracts, will be able to operate the provisions of the Turkish Code of Obligations regarding the responsibility of the lessor and ask for the reduction of the rent based on the concepts of "legal fault" or "economic fault".” Özcan also said that the Supreme Court had decisions that the debts would cease in the event of temporary impossibility of performance in permanent acts such as lease contracts.
Noting that the inevitable external events that cannot be predicted by the parties in the contracts are accepted as a force majeure by the Supreme Court, Özcan said that the parties could decide whether the epidemic situations would be accepted as force majeure in the contracts. In addition, Özcan added that the adaptation option specified in Article 138 of the Turkish Code of Obligations No. 6098 would be brought to the agenda in terms of the performance of the debts in some contracts in the coming period.
