Article 693

What it means when you sign

If a lease expires and the tenant stays on and keeps using the property with the landlord's knowledge and without any objection from the landlord, the lease is treated as renewed on its original terms and for a similar term.

For a contract about to be signed, this article is relevant to clauses on expiry, renewal, holding over and notice. It means a lease can be renewed without anyone signing anything new: the tenant staying on, and the landlord knowing and not objecting, is enough under the wording of this article. The renewal is on the original terms and for a similar term. A lease that says nothing about what happens at the end may therefore continue by this route. When reading a lease, it is worth checking whether it says how and when either side must object to continued use, whether it requires notice before the end of the term, and what the rent and conditions will be if the tenant stays on.