Commercial Leases/Business Goodwill

Under the terms of Article L. 145-10, para. 4, of the Commercial Code, the landlord has a period of three months from the request for renewal of the commercial lease to inform the tenant, by extrajudicial act, of their refusal to renew it, specifying the reasons for this. If not included in such an act, the landlord's verbal declaration of refusal to renew, in response to the inquiry by the judicial officer serving the request, does not constitute a refusal, and the mere mention of this declaration in the extrajudicial act has no effect on the renewal of the lease . Article L. 145-10, para. 5, specifies that “the extrajudicial act notifying the refusal to renew must, on pain of nullity, indicate that the tenant who intends to either contest the refusal to renew or request the payment of an eviction indemnity must bring the matter before the court before the expiration of a two-year period from the date on which the refusal to renew is served.”

Cass. 3e civ., 24 September 2020, LawLex202300010624JBJ.

217. Refusal