DESAHUCIO

Every tenant shall enjoy the right to terminate the lease or sublease contract of the dwelling or premises that he occupies, provided that he gives written notice or serves notice on the landlord in the voluntary judicial proceeding, at least thirty (30) days in advance in the case of dwellings and sixty (60) days in advance in the case of premises. Such notice may not legally be given by tenants who are not solvent for the payment of rentals. In every case, the tenant remains obliged to allow any interested parties, authorized in writing by the landlord, to visit the leased property to inspect it, within the term comprised between the date of the notice and the day on which he plans to vacate it. The tenant who does not give these facilities shall be sanctioned in accordance with this law.

The vacating of the dwelling or premises that is the object of a lease contract may only be demanded in any of the following cases:

a)When the owner requires the dwelling to inhabit it himself, his spouse or common-law partner, his children, his parents or one and the other, provided that he fully proves that need;

b)When the immovable property needs repairs indispensable to maintain its normal state of habitability or safety, circumstances that shall be evidenced with reports of the Municipal Engineering Office and of the Directorate General of Health in Guatemala City, and outside of it, with the report of the respective municipality and of the Departmental Sanitary Delegation. Such reports must specify whether the repairs are necessary for the indicated purposes and whether for executing them it is necessary for the tenant to vacate. The lessee shall have the right to occupy the immovable property again when the repairs have been completed and the owner has initiated a new graduation of the rent, in accordance with the prescriptions of this law, granting him for the latter the term of fifteen days;

c)When a new building is to be constructed on the immovable property, provided that the owner accompanies the plans approved by the Municipality and that he justifies that he has the necessary resources to undertake the work at the latest within the two months following the vacating;

d)When the owner proves that he needs the premises for any of the purposes indicated in subsection d) of Article 3, provided that he does not have another one for such purpose or that, when he is the owner of another premises, the one that he wishes to occupy presents more adequate conditions;

e)When the sublessor obtains, as a consequence of the subleases, a value greater than the rent fixed in Article 30 of this law;

f)When it concerns immovable property of the State or of the municipalities that is necessary for the installation of its dependencies, offices or services;

g)When the lessee or sublessee devotes the immovable property to uses different from those for which it was contracted and principally when morals and good customs are contravened with them;

h)When the lessee or sublessee is not solvent with the payment of the rent, owing at least two months due; and

i)When the tenant causes to the dwelling or premises deteriorations arising from his negligence or from contravention of the terms of the respective contract or of the sanitary or municipal regulations, excepting only the normal depreciation due to the use to which the leased property is destined in accordance with the contract.

In the cases to which subsections a), b), c) and f) of Article 40 refer, the notice of vacating must be given at least three months in advance.

If the vacating proceeds in immovable property occupied by official or private schools, it may only be made effective during the vacation period.

The tribunal before which an eviction action is initiated shall not give it processing as long as the plaintiff does not accompany the proof of having made the deposit corresponding to two monthly installments in favor of the lessee.