“The landlord’s children, who actually managed the building, can be viewed as agents.”

Request for contract renewal from tenant and landlord's children
Building owner claims, “I was not contacted”
The court said, "The child managed the building on behalf of the child...considered to be the actual manager and judged to be a notification to the landlord."

The court ruled that if another person actually managed the building on behalf of the building owner, he or she could be viewed as the building owner's agent.

According to the legal community on the 2nd, the Pohang Branch of Daegu District Court dismissed the plaintiff's claim in a building delivery lawsuit filed by building owner A to commercial tenant B on October 24.

Mr. A and Mr. B signed a contract in May 2021 with a deposit of 20 million won, monthly rent of 1.1 million won, and management fee of 50,000 won.

As the expiration date approached, the daughter of Mr. A, who was managing the building, presented to Mr. B an increase in monthly rent and management fees and a shortened contract period as conditions for renewing the contract.

Mr. B expressed his refusal.

Next, a text message was sent to Mr. A's daughter stating that he would exercise his 'right to request contract renewal' which could be extended for two years under the same conditions as before.

However, Mr. A said he could not accept this and filed a suit for delivery of the building.

According to the Commercial Lease Act, in order to exercise the right to renew the contract, one must notify the building owner at least one month before the expiration of the contract, but Mr. B did not comply with this.

At the same time, Mr. A emphasized that he could not accept the text message sent by Mr. B to his daughter regarding the exercise of claim rights.

In response, Mr. B claimed that Mr. A's daughter had always claimed to be the building owner's agent.

He also added that the number in Mr. A's daughter's name was written in the landlord's phone number section of the building lease agreement.

He then emphasized that since the text message was sent a month before the expiration date, the contract should be considered renewed.

The court ruled in Mr. B’s favor.

The court ruled, "During the contract period, Mr. A's daughter represented the lessor and asked about the use of the building and whether the contract should be renewed. She was in charge of actual building management, including collecting management fees and notifying of elevator inspections. She also claimed that she had the authority of the lessor."

At the same time, he explained, “The only landlord number written in the contract was the number in Mr. A’s daughter’s name,” and “Mr. B’s notification to Mr. A’s daughter a month ago can be seen as notification to the landlord.”

It was then determined that “the contract in question continues without expiration due to renewal requests.”

Daeryun Law Firm (Limited), which acted as legal representative for Mr. B, said, "Even if the authority of the agent was not directly stated, if the use of a name that could be considered an agent is approved or condoned according to social convention, such authority can be considered as granted," and "We have also managed the entire rental contract relationship, including issuing tax invoices on behalf of the building owner, Mr. A."

He added, “Taking these circumstances into consideration, it appears that Mr. A’s daughter has been recognized as a proxy.”

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