Criminal tenants can be evicted more easily

The Supreme Court is expanding the possibility of evicting criminal tenants from their leases with a new ruling from May 1, 2018. The same applies if the criminal is part of the tenant's household, for example if it is the tenant's child who has committed a crime.

Until now, case law has said that the crime must have taken place in or near the property where the tenant lives. It must be within the area of the same housing association or property. But the Supreme Court now says that it is also possible to terminate the lease on the basis of crime that takes place in a nearby area. In the specific case, violence was committed at a common gathering place in the Vollsmose district of Odense, and even though the gathering place was not located on the housing association's area, but approximately 500 meters away, the Supreme Court assumed that there was such a connection between the property and the place in question, and that it was one residential area, even though there were several different public housing associations in the area, that the lease could be terminated on this basis.

The judgment thus increases the geographical area within which crime can justify that criminal tenants can be evicted from their tenancy. The judgment also establishes that it is always still about a concrete assessment whether or not a termination should actually take place. There is a wealth of case law in the area, which, together with the brand new judgment, provides a clue as to how a given case can be expected to turn out.