Lawful Eviction — Where a Landlord Starts
Eviction means that the tenant must lawfully vacate the dwelling and return it to the landlord. Georgian law regulates this process strictly: a landlord cannot remove a tenant by arbitrary action, self-help or informal notices. The procedure begins with a lawful ground for terminating the lease before its term — or with the expiry of the term — and ends with the physical return of the premises in proper condition.
The Civil Code of Georgia defines specific grounds on which a landlord may terminate a lease agreement early. Any demand for eviction that ignores these grounds will fail in court, and attempts to shortcut the procedure expose the landlord to liability of their own. Planning each step — ground, warning, written termination, return — is therefore not formality but the core of a successful eviction.
Grounds for Early Termination — Damage and Non-Payment
Article 557 of the Civil Code provides that the landlord may terminate the agreement before its term where the tenant, despite the landlord’s warning, significantly damages the leased property or creates a real danger of significant damage. The provision carries a double requirement that landlords must document carefully: a warning must actually have been given, and the damage must be significant — minor defects and ordinary wear do not qualify.
The second ground is non-payment. Under Article 558, the landlord may terminate the agreement before its term where the tenant has not paid the rent for three months. That is the statutory threshold: a shorter arrears period gives no right to terminate, and landlords should keep an accurate record of payment dates and amounts. Where rent is paid in kind or by other agreed means, the same three-month logic applies to the agreed form of performance.
Dwellings — the Weighty-Cause Requirement
Residential tenancies enjoy heightened protection. Under Article 562 of the Civil Code, a lease of a dwelling may be terminated by the landlord only for weighty reasons. This applies even to the grounds described above — in the residential context they must rise to the level of a weighty cause, or the termination will not stand.
The Code lists the situations in which a reason is weighty: the tenant culpably and significantly breached their contractual obligations; the landlord needs the dwelling for themselves or for close relatives; the tenant refuses to pay the increased rent proposed by the landlord which corresponds to the market rent for the apartment; or the tenant committed such an unlawful or immoral act against the landlord that continuing the relationship becomes impossible. Each of these must be proven by the landlord — it is the landlord’s burden, not the tenant’s. A separate rule applies to furnished apartments: where the leased object is an apartment furnished with furniture, the landlord may always terminate the lease observing the notice period — no weighty cause is required in that case.
Form of Termination and the Return of the Premises
The Civil Code imposes a formal requirement: under Article 563, the termination of a lease of a dwelling must be effected in writing. Oral arrangements, or agreement by informal messages, leave the parties without evidence of when and on what terms the relationship ended — and in eviction litigation that evidentiary gap usually costs the landlord the case. A written termination fixes the date, the ground and the deadline for vacating.
After termination comes return. Under Article 564, on termination of the lease the tenant must return the property to the landlord in the condition in which they received it, allowing for normal wear, or in the condition specified in the agreement. This supports not only a claim for the premises themselves but also a claim for the costs of remedying excessive deterioration — which is why the condition at handover should be documented at both the start and the end of the tenancy.
Third Parties in the Premises
A recurring practical problem is that the person living in the premises is not the tenant but someone to whom the tenant transferred the property for use. Article 566 of the Civil Code addresses this directly: where the tenant has transferred the property to a third person for use, the landlord may, after termination of the lease, demand the return of the property from that third person.
This rule closes the gap through which occupants remaining in the premises could otherwise defeat the eviction. The demand is addressed to the third person directly, and if it is refused the matter proceeds to court and enforcement. For landlords, the practical implication is to identify who actually occupies the premises before litigation strategy is fixed — the defendant may not be the person named in the contract.
How We Help
Eviction proceedings require a correctly selected ground, properly fixed evidence and strict compliance with form. We assess whether a statutory ground — or a weighty cause for a dwelling — actually exists; prepare the warning and the written termination; plan the return process, including documentation of condition; and represent you in court where necessary. Contact us to carry out the eviction lawfully and without avoidable risk.