The termination of a commercial lease is regulated separately in Greek law from the termination of a regular lease, with a later published law applying specifically to those kind of leases. However, where there is no specific provision in the later law, the regulations for regular leases apply correspondingly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are many legal grounds for terminating a commercial lease. Firstly, Law 34\/1995, which generally regulates leases<\/strong>, provides for “termination by repentance<\/strong>” on the part of the lessee, which can be exercised at any time without the need to provide a reason for terminating the lease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the later Law 4242\/2014,<\/strong> which deals exclusively with commercial leases<\/strong>, does not allow for the termination of the lease at any time and without penalty for the contracting parties, within the legal three-year mandatory duration of the commercial lease<\/strong>. Furthermore, it provides for the refusal to waive the mandatory three-year period, even with the agreed contrary will of the parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In short, all commercial leases concluded before 2014 are subject to the previous law, i.e. Law 34\/1995. On the other hand, those concluded later are subject to Law 4242\/2014, and therefore to the three-year restriction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In any case, and in addition to the above regulations, the termination of a commercial lease can be based on various legal provisions. Firstly, on the right to extraordinary termination of a continuous contractual relationship<\/strong>, as it arises from the combination of articles 281, 288, 588, 672-766 of the Greek Civil Code<\/strong>, as a general principle of law. This termination can be made at any time and requires the existence of a “serious reason”<\/strong>, which exists when, based on good faith and transactional ethics, the continuation of the lease is considered excessively burdensome for one of the two parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Secondly, specific reasons for early termination of a commercial lease are provided separately for each of the parties in the relevant law. Within this framework, the existence of a “serious reason” has been deemed to be interpreted narrowly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n