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A modern tenancy law must affirm a basic principle: property owners have the right to reclaim their homes for personal use at the end of a lawful lease, and they must be able to do so through swift and reliable legal processes. Tenant protection and property rights are not opposing values. They are mutually reinforcing. Sri Lanka now has an opportunity to design a tenancy framework that is fair, efficient, and humane. Ensuring timely recovery of homes for personal occupation must be at the heart of that framework
By ADeS
As Sri Lanka considers reforms to strengthen tenant protection, it is important that policymakers recognise a simple truth: housing security cannot be achieved by weakening the rights of property owners. A successful tenancy law must protect responsible tenants while ensuring that landlords are not exposed to prolonged financial and personal hardship due to legal loopholes and procedural delays.
I write as a Sri Lankan homeowner currently residing overseas. Like many in the diaspora, I have leased my home while working abroad, with the intention of returning to Sri Lanka for retirement. I manage my property through formal lease agreements and comply with all legal requirements. My expectation is simple and reasonable: when the lease ends, and when I require my home for personal occupation, I should be able to regain possession without undue difficulty.
At the end of a legally agreed lease period, tenants should be required to vacate when the owner has a genuine and verified need to occupy the property. This principle is fundamental to property rights and personal security. Without it, leasing becomes an unacceptable risk for ordinary homeowners.
When protection becomes punishment
Tenant protection is necessary. No family should face arbitrary eviction, unsafe housing, or exploitation. However, when laws are drafted without adequate safeguards, they create opportunities for abuse.
In many jurisdictions, a small minority of tenants learn how to exploit procedural delays, technical defects, and vague regulations to remain in properties without paying rent or vacating lawfully. Even after fixed-term leases expire, some refuse to leave, knowing that eviction proceedings may take years.
During this period, landlords continue to service loans, pay taxes, and maintain properties without receiving income. For individual homeowners, this is not merely a financial inconvenience—it can threaten retirement security and family stability.
The reality for overseas property owners
Many Sri Lankans living abroad lease their homes with the clear intention of returning later in life. These properties are not commercial investments. They are future retirement homes and family residences.
When returning owners are unable to recover possession because tenants exploit legal loopholes or court delays, they may be forced to rent accommodation themselves while their own homes remain unlawfully occupied.
At an advanced age, few individuals have the capacity to endure prolonged litigation. A tenancy law that fails to guarantee timely recovery of one’s own home places responsible citizens in an unjust and vulnerable position.
The need for clear and enforceable eviction rights
A balanced tenancy framework must provide clear, practical, and enforceable grounds for termination, including:
A balanced tenancy framework must provide clear, practical, and enforceable grounds for termination, including:
Where a landlord demonstrates a legitimate intention to occupy the property personally, tenants must be legally obliged to vacate upon lease expiry, subject only to reasonable notice requirements.
False claims should be penalised. However, genuine claims must not be frustrated by excessive procedural barriers.
Speedy legal resolution is essential
Even the best eviction grounds are meaningless without efficient enforcement.
A central weakness of many tenancy systems is delay. Disputes can take months or years, effectively allowing unlawful occupation to continue.
A reformed Act must establish:
Cases involving lease expiry and personal occupation should be prioritised and resolved within weeks or months—not years.
Speed is not about favouring landlords. It is about preventing injustice through prolonged uncertainty.
Written agreements and legal certainty
Informal leasing arrangements remain widespread in Sri Lanka, increasing the risk of conflict.
Mandatory written and preferably notarially attested agreements would:
Standard agreements should expressly state that occupation beyond the agreed term requires mutual consent.
Accountability on both sides
A fair tenancy law must impose meaningful consequences for bad-faith conduct.
Landlords who harass, illegally evict, or disconnect utilities must be penalised. Equally, tenants who refuse to vacate after lawful termination, deliberately delay proceedings, or exploit loopholes must face sanctions.
Without such balance, compliance collapses.
Conclusion: Certainty is the foundation of fairness
A modern tenancy law must affirm a basic principle: property owners have the right to reclaim their homes for personal use at the end of a lawful lease, and they must be able to do so through swift and reliable legal processes.
Tenant protection and property rights are not opposing values. They are mutually reinforcing.
When tenants know that lawful lease terms will be enforced, compliance improves. When landlords know that the law will support legitimate recovery of possession, they invest more confidently in rental housing.
Sri Lanka now has an opportunity to design a tenancy framework that is fair, efficient, and humane. Ensuring timely recovery of homes for personal occupation must be at the heart of that framework.
(The author is a Sri Lankan homeowner currently residing overseas who has leased his property during his absence, with the intention of returning to Sri Lanka for retirement)
