traders who remained closed during the pandemic will have to pay their rents well

In three judgments it has just rendered, the highest court of the judiciary, the Court of Cassation, obliges the traders concerned to pay their unpaid rents during the period when the non-essential businesses were closed. The Court had selected three files out of the thirty comparables that had been sent to it: those of a chain of low-cost stores, a Bordeaux real estate agency and a tourist residence.

No Covid discount. The institution judges that the ban on leaving home decreed by the government to stop the spread of Covid-19 – and which had caused the loss of customers – is not attributable to the donors (the owners of the walls of the shops ). Consequently, the rents had to be paid in due form.

According to lawyers, this could constitute the beginning of case law and the Court’s decision is likely to awaken many initiatives. In many courts, disputes between traders and their lessors have been put on hold during the crisis. Now that the Court of Cassation has rendered its verdict, the spirits will wake up and the procedures with it.

Traders are far from winning in this case. But it is the opposite decision that would have been a thunderclap. It would have allowed all traders, forced to close during confinement, to claim discounts, with colossal financial stakes. According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the rents and charges immobilized due to the restrictions exceed three billion euros. There remains one option for tenant merchants: to try to engage the responsibility of the State. Finally, it was he who had forced the establishments to close.