Facing Eviction — the Sources of Your Protection
If a landlord is threatening you with eviction, the first thing to understand is that Georgian law protects the tenant of a dwelling with substantial guarantees. Eviction is not a matter of the landlord’s discretion: it requires a ground, a form and a procedure. Arbitrary eviction — changing the locks, restricting access to the premises or using force — is unlawful, and against such actions the tenant has the full range of protective remedies.
This page sets out the norms that protect a tenant in a dwelling: the requirement of a weighty cause for termination, the continuity of the family’s position after the tenant’s death, the consequences of a sale of the property, and — the broadest guarantee of all — the tenant’s right to defend their possession against every violator, including the owner.
The Weighty-Cause Barrier
Article 562 of the Civil Code is the central protective norm: a lease of a dwelling may be terminated by the landlord only where weighty reasons exist. Whatever the contractual term, early termination is unavailable to the landlord without such a reason — the protection is built into the statute, not into the bargain.
The Code specifies when 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. The burden of proving any of these lies on the landlord. One exception narrows the protection: where the leased object is an apartment furnished with furniture, the landlord may always terminate observing the notice period.
Non-Payment — the Three-Month Threshold
The most common ground invoked against tenants is rent arrears, but Article 558 of the Civil Code sets a clear threshold: the landlord may terminate the agreement before its term only where the tenant has not paid the rent for three months. Arrears of shorter duration do not create a right to terminate, and in a dwelling case the landlord must still show that the non-payment amounts to a weighty cause.
If you are in arrears, the strongest move is to cure them — pay the debt or agree a written schedule — before the three-month threshold is crossed and relied upon. Doing so removes the factual basis of the termination and leaves the landlord to prove a weighty cause without the easiest evidence. Keep proof of every payment and of any communication about the schedule; in eviction litigation, the tenant’s file usually decides the case.