Oral Lease Agreements Under Syrian Law
Can the landlord evict the tenant at any time?
A landlord and tenant may agree orally to lease a home for one year, for example, and later disagree about the lease term or the date of vacating. Can the landlord say: “There is no written contract, so I may recover the property whenever I wish”?
The answer is no.
The absence of a written contract does not necessarily mean that no lease relationship exists. Syrian Rental Law No. /20/ of 2015 expressly provides that unregistered lease agreements are subject, as to their proof, to the applicable legal rules. The dispute therefore moves from whether a written document exists to whether a party can prove the agreement and its terms.
If the lease term is proven:
If the tenant can prove that the agreement was, for example, for one year, the general rule is that this term must be respected. Modern leases governed by Law No. /20/ are based on the parties’ intention. Article /565/ of the Civil Code also provides that a lease for a specified term ends when the term stated in the contract expires.
Accordingly, the landlord may not treat the oral nature of the contract, by itself, as an independent ground for ending it before its term expires, without prejudice to other circumstances in which the law or the contract permits a request for rescission or eviction.
What if the term cannot be proven?
This is where Article /531/ of the Syrian Civil Code becomes important.
If the parties did not agree on a term, the term was unspecified, or the claimed term cannot be proven, the lease is deemed to have been concluded for the period for which rent was paid or specified, and the statutory notice periods for eviction apply.
For homes, shops, offices, and similar premises, the law establishes special rules for determining the lease term and the notice periods when no fixed, provable term exists.
This means that saying, “The contract is oral, so the tenant must leave immediately,” is legally inaccurate. The court first examines the true agreement, the term, the method of paying rent, and the conduct of the parties.
How can an oral lease relationship be proven?
Depending on the rules of evidence and the circumstances of each case, a party may rely on various evidence and indications, including:
Rent receipts and financial transfers.
Messages and correspondence between the landlord and tenant.
An admission by either party that the lease relationship exists, or as to its rent or term.
Documents and indications connected with delivery of the property, occupation, and payment of rent.
Other means of proof permitted by the Law of Evidence, according to the nature of the fact to be proven.
The Syrian Legal Encyclopedia has explained that when there is no written contract and the parties rely on an oral agreement, the interested party must, in the event of a dispute, resort to the courts to prove the lease relationship and its terms. The judicial ruling may then serve as the basis for recovering the property when the relevant conditions are met.
Can the landlord remove the tenant personally?
A dispute may not be converted into forcible eviction, cutting off utilities, or changing the locks merely because there is no written contract.
If the lease is duly registered under the Rental Law, it is considered, in the cases specified by law, an enforceable instrument on which the landlord may rely to recover the property when the term ends.
If the relationship is oral or the contract is unregistered and a dispute arises concerning its existence or duration, the matter requires a judicial ruling establishing the relationship and resolving the dispute over its termination and eviction.
The Civil Magistrate Court has subject-matter jurisdiction over actions concerning the validity of a lease contract, its rescission, delivery of the leased property, its eviction, and disputes over its enforcement, regardless of the value of the dispute, pursuant to Article /64/ of the Code of Civil Procedure No. /1/ of 2016 and Article /13/ of the Rental Law. The court with territorial jurisdiction is determined under the rules of local jurisdiction and the circumstances of each action; therefore, it is not accurate to state generally that it is always the court of the “place where the property is located.”
Baghdadi Law Firm’s Perspective:
An oral contract is not synonymous with the absence of a contract.
Its real difficulty lies in proof: who is the tenant? What is the amount of rent? And what term did the parties agree upon?
If the term is proven, its legal effects must be respected. If it cannot be proven, the law determines the duration of the relationship and how it may be ended. Forced eviction in the presence of a dispute cannot be carried out at the landlord’s unilateral will, but only through the lawful procedure.
In an oral lease, the agreement may be valid, but what you can prove before the court is what practically defines the scope of your right.
References: The Syrian Civil Code, particularly Articles /526, 531, 565 et seq./; Rental Law No. /20/ of 2015, particularly Articles /1, 3, 4, 13, 18/; Code of Civil Procedure No. /1/ of 2016, Article /64/.