NAZ KEL Sdn Bhd

On the court record

Illustrates how tenancy disputes turn on the interplay of written terms, oral variations, waiver and estoppel, and on whether they are suitable for summary resolution.

Naz Kel Sdn Bhd appears in the reported judgments as a company litigating over tenancy and lease arrangements in the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi), in matters concerning the extension and termination of a tenancy and the effect of oral variations. The decisions engage the law of landlord and tenant and the doctrines that govern informal changes to a written arrangement.

In one decision the company was an appellant in a dispute over a tenancy agreement entered into by an agent of the registered proprietor, where the questions were whether an oral extension and an oral agreement by the principal to waive rental were effective, whether a subsequent oral agreement with the principal superseded the earlier oral agreement made with the agent, and whether estoppel by conduct arose. Those issues go to the enforceability of informal variations to a tenancy and the effect of conduct on the parties' respective rights, particularly where dealings are conducted partly through an agent and partly with the principal.

Connected decisions, framed in Malay, concerned an application by the proprietor for a declaration that the tenancy agreement had been terminated and for an order that the tenant deliver up vacant possession of the premises. The court considered whether the proprietor's acceptance of rental payments for particular months amounted to a waiver (penepian) of the right to terminate the tenancy, and whether the matter should be tried through the originating-summons procedure or converted to a writ action given the factual disputes. Those questions reflect the tension between a landlord's right to terminate and the effect of continuing to accept rent, and the procedural choice between summary determination and a full trial where the facts are contested. Across the matters, the company illustrates how tenancy disputes turn on the interplay of written terms, oral variations, waiver and estoppel, and on whether such disputes are suitable for summary resolution.