On 19 June 2021, the Act Amending the Housing Act (SZ-1E) entered into force, which regulated certain areas of housing policy in Slovenia that had been neglected in the past. It newly regulated the issue of termination of a lease agreement and shortened the notice periods for both the lessor and lessee. SZ-1E also radically interfered with the area of commercial leases - the provision of Article 52 of the SZ-1E stipulates that the Commercial Buildings and Commercial Premises Act (ZPSPP) should be repealed in its entirety.
In practice, it is particularly important for the field of commercial leases that certain peremptory provisions of the ZPSPP have ceased to apply, such as provisions stipulating judical termination of the lease relationship, the minimum notice period, the limited possibility of termination of the lease etc. The courts tried to mitigate the rigidity of certain statutory provisions (for example, the provision stipulating that an agreement fot commercial lease, concluded for a definite period, cannot be terminated prematurely) by case law, however such case law was rather inconsistent and was changing frequently. The repeal of the ZPSPP, which has been force since 1974 and was already quite outdated, is therefore more than welcome.
It should be noted that the repealed ZPSPP still applies to lease agreements concluded before 19 June 2021, while for the lease agreements, concludd after that date, the general provisions of the Obligations Code (OZ) apply, as well as contractual provisions, which will gain in importance with a freer regulation.
