What can a landlord do if the tenant stops paying rent?

Ejar’s unified residential lease gives the tenant a grace period counted from each due date: 30 days if the payment cycle is 180 days or longer, and 15 days if it is shorter. Its termination clause lets the lessor terminate the lease through Ejar if the tenant is late with a due instalment “(15) or (30) days after the end of the grace period”, unless both parties agree a different period through Ejar. Cancelling a documented lease on Ejar by one party alone, however, requires an Execution Court eviction order.

The landlord chooses the type of execution: financial, to collect the arrears, or direct, to evict. According to the Ministry of Justice, the Najiz filing service carries no fee, but the Judicial Costs regulation sets judicial costs for the request: 2% of the amount claimed for a financial request (minimum SAR 500, maximum SAR 10,000) and SAR 500 for a direct request such as eviction.

The tenant bears them as the party executed against, unless the landlord is shown not to be entitled to all or part of the claim, in which case the landlord bears that share. Not paying them does not block registration of the request: they are finally assessed after the request is decided and collected only after the period to object to the assessment.

Under the Execution Law issued by Royal Decree M/53 dated 13/8/1433H, a tenant who neither pays nor discloses enough assets within 5 days of being notified of the execution order is treated as a defaulter, and the execution judge immediately orders a travel ban, disclosure and attachment of assets and notification of the credit information bureau, among other measures (Article 46). For eviction, the enforcement officer goes to the property on the day after 5 days have passed since notification of the order and may use force if needed (Article 72); the implementing regulation allows the eviction to be postponed by up to 30 days.

The law issued by Royal Decree M/237 dated 3/11/1447H replaces the current one. If 5 working days pass after the tenant is notified of the execution order without payment, compulsory enforcement starts at once: credit bureaus are notified and the tenant’s assets are attached, unless the tenant provides a bank guarantee sufficient to cover the debt, which buys 10 more working days; the court may also impose a daily fine of up to SAR 5,000 (Article 18). Once that period ends, the court bans travel abroad on the landlord’s request for up to 3 years, with all bans capped at 6 years (Article 19), and no more than one third of the tenant’s gross salary can be attached for a rent debt (Article 26).

For eviction, if the tenant does not leave within 5 working days of being notified of the execution order, the court immediately orders the competent force to act; if that is not possible, it bans travel on the landlord’s request and imposes a daily fine of up to SAR 10,000 (Article 36). If 30 working days pass after these measures without compliance, the court orders detention on the landlord’s request for up to 180 days, which may be extended, with exceptions (Article 37).