In Janzen v. Sun International, [1987] B.C.J. No. 503 (S.C.), the lease contained a right to renew provided that written notice of the tenant’s intention to apply for a renewal shall be given to the landlord at least three months’ before the expiration of the lease. The tenant failed to exercise his renewal option within the stipulated time. The court found that the tenant forfeited his own right to renew: no act of the landlord could be characterized as a forfeiture of the tenant’s rights. In dismissing the tenant’s claim for relief, the court distinguished between a breach of the contractual terms of the lease, from the consequences of which a tenant may be relieved in equity, and a failure to exercise an option which could lead to a new contract. The latter did not come within the court’s power to relieve against forfeiture.
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