Your landlord wants you out
A landlord recovers possession through a court, not by changing the locks. The Courts Act gives the Intermediate Court or a District Court jurisdiction over that action, and the Landlord and Tenant Act restricts the right to possession.
Written by the juris team. Not yet reviewed by a Mauritian lawyer.
What to do
- Keep every document: the lease, rent receipts, and anything the landlord has served on you.
- Note the exact date of anything you were served with. Court time limits run from a date.
- Go to the hearing. A possession order made in your absence is far harder to undo.
What the law says
The Intermediate Court or a District Court has jurisdiction over a landlord's action to cancel a lease or recover possession from a tenant or occupier.
The Intermediate Court or a District Court shall have jurisdiction in any action by a landlord to obtain cancellation of a lease, with or without damages, or to recover possession of real property from a tenant or occupier, including an action where the value of the property exceeds the prescribed amount.
Where a tenant has given written notice to quit, the Court may make a possession order if the landlord has since contracted to sell or let, or would be seriously prejudiced.
The Court may make an order under section 16 when the tenant has given written notice to quit and as a consequence, the landlord has— (a) contracted to sell or let the premises; or (b) taken any other step as a result of which he would be seriously prejudiced if he could not obtain possession of the premises.
What this guide does not cover
- How much notice you must be given, and which court hears your case. Whether it is the District or the Intermediate Court turns on the 'prescribed amount', which the Courts Act leaves to regulations made by the President. Those regulations are not in this corpus. And the Fair Rent Tribunal, which appears throughout the Landlord and Tenant Act, has entertained no application made on or after 1 January 2021, so juris will not send you there.
Where the matter is heard
- District Court or Intermediate Court (ordinary civil): Ordinary civil claims, including a landlord's action to cancel a lease or to recover possession of property from a tenant or occupier.