Categories
Law

Kuwait Law: SME’s and New Businesses in Kuwait

mayor

As a commercial lawyer and the owner of a small business (Q8BookStore) I was pleased to attend a discussion panel held last week by the British Embassy on small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Even though it was great to hear Mohammed H. Alsahya and the Mayor of London Speak about SME’s, I was actually more interested to hear Dr. Mohammed Alzuhair, the executive chairman for Kuwait’s SME fund.

Dr. Mohammed Alzuhair spoke about the government’s new vision for encouraging business in Kuwait. The government of Kuwait has really been trying to develop business in Kuwait for locals and foreigners alike and new important laws have been issued with practical changes, such as:

1) New companies law 79/2013 – Now we can have non-profit companies in Kuwait.

2) New commercial permit’s law 111/2013 – Apparently you can get a commercial permit by applying online. I’ll be investigating this soon.

3) SME fund law 98/2013 – A 1 billion Kuwaiti Dinars fund to support SME’s in Kuwait and rumor has it that their permits will be separate

4) Promotion of direct investments in Kuwait 116/2013 – Kuwait Foreign Investment Bureau is turning into an authority, all sectors will be open to foreign investors, and foreign investors will be allowed an equity share of up to 100%.

The laws are changing and I am excited to understand these changes. If you have an SME or you’re considering launching a start-up soon and want to get an email with related information, email me on [email protected] with the following info: your name, job position (at your SME and/or daytime job), type of business.

If you have more information about the above laws and would like to share changes also email me at [email protected]

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.




Categories
Kuwait Law

Kuwait Law: The Alcohol Post

Kuwait is one of the few countries in the world where alcohol is not available. The topic is also confusing with people having different assumptions on what is legal and what isn’t. We all know it is illegal to sell alcohol but is it illegal to buy? Are we allowed to have alcohol for personal consumption? Is it illegal to make?

Article 206 of Kuwait Penal Law no.16 promulgated in 1960 states:

206(a) – Any person who brings, imports or manufactures alcoholic or intoxicating beverages for the purpose of trading shall be panelized for a period not exceeding 10 years.

The article doesn’t mention anything about purchasing alcohol but what about if you bring or manufacture alcohol for personal use? The article clearly states that you are only punished if it is “for the purpose of trading”. Lets read Article 206(b)

206(b) – However, if the intention of bringing, importing or manufacturing is not trading or promotion, the person shall be penalized with a fine not exceeding KD100 and should he repeat this act the penalty shall be for a period not more than six months and/or a fine of not more than KD100.

So I guess the first time you get alcohol into Kuwait for personal use you are fined only but the next time you can go to jail and/or fined. The same applies for manufacturing alcohol for personal consumption.

206(d) – Any person who takes alcoholic or intoxicating beverages to a public place or to a place where he may be seen by others be it a public place or a private club, and any person who brings the alcoholic or intoxicating beverage to the said place for another person to consume shall be penalized for a period not exceeding 6 months and/or fined not more than KD50.

Any person who is found drunk will be punished the same.

So the law abstains from mentioning much about personal consumption of alcohol so therefore it is not a crime to drink inside your private space (house/apartment) just as long as you don’t step outside if you are drunk.

Please be careful and stay legal people.

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.




Categories
50s to 90s Law

Kuwait laws you don’t need to know: Procedures for Pilgrims Returning to Kuwait

Its been a while since I have written about laws you don’t need to know (part of a series), this one is for everyone that just came back from Hajj. Decree No. 34 from the year 1960, Regarding the Health Control Procedures for Pilgrims Returning to Kuwait:

(Article 2) “every pilgrim must come to the health environment doctor, in the area where he resides, within 24 hours from the time of his arrival for a medical examination. He must then come 48 hours after the first examinations and a third time 48 hours after the second examinations”

(Article 4) “the public health department shall have the right to sterilize the pilgrims luggage, if necessary it shall also have the right to destroy it”

(Article 5) “all violators of this law shall be imprisoned for a period that shall not exceed 3 months and a fine that shall not exceed 300 hundred rupees”

I personally found a lot of interesting things about this law but the most impressive to me was how organized Kuwait was back in the day to consider the safety of the other people and to state something like biological tests (we’re talking 1960 here). I just find that fascinating.

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
Have a Kuwait law related question? Email me at [email protected]

The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.

Photo above from 1954 taken from [Here]




Categories
Kuwait Law

Kuwait Law: Indecent Acts

A video of youngsters kissing in a car went viral yesterday and controversy followed. Information on the youngsters names, job positions and even stuff about their families started spreading between people. I am bitter, I think if you do see something that might harm a person’s reputation or get a person in legal trouble then DO NOT SHARE!

Lets look at Article 198 from the Kuwait Penal Law,

“Any person who makes an indecent sign or an act in a public place in such a manner that he is seen or is heard by whoever is in a public place, or he imitates the other sex in any form of forms, shall be punished with imprisonment for a period that shall not exceed one year and a fine that shall not exceed one thousands Dinars or by either of the penalties”

The Article is very vague and includes a variety of acts as crimes. Let us break it down:

1) “an indecent sign or an act in a public place” – this means anything from making out, to giving the middle finger, to writing a swear word, seriously who decides what is indecent?

2) “in such a manner that he is seen or is heard by whoever is in a public place” – so it doesn’t have to take place IN the public place as long as it could be seen/heard FROM a public place, so basically in your car, your office if the windows are open and your not private twitter account are all applicable.

3) “he/she imitates the other sex in any form of forms” – and who decides this too? Its 2013, products are turning unisex, seriously me and Mark have the same purple shorts.

What they did was not smart but let us just hope that they just get fined, and I quote Mark – “that’s excitement in Kuwait for ya”

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
Have a Kuwait law related question? Email me at [email protected]

The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.




Categories
Law

Kuwait Law: Why Rupees?

So a lot of you have a read a few of my posts discussing different crimes under the Kuwaiti Penal Law and how the punishments were in Rupees. This caused quite a stir with a lot of people with many asking why the punishments were in Rupees instead of Kuwaiti Dinars. Some of the readers even claimed that those laws no longer applied because the punishments were in Rupees. Firstly that’s not true, the laws are still valid even though they are in Rupees. Secondly, below is an explanation on why Kuwait uses Rupees instead of Kuwaiti Dinars:

The History of the Use of Rupees in Kuwait
They were called the Arabian Gulf Rupees by the people that called our area the Arabian Gulf, and they were also called the Persian Rupees by the people that called our area the Persian Gulf. I decided that I am going to call them the Penal Law Rupees in this post.

The Penal Law Rupees were used in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and the Trucial States (now famously known as UAE or should I just say Dubai). They were printed by India and it was used in Kuwait from 1959-1961. You can still find them on eBay selling from a few hundred dollars and all the way up to a few thousand dollars (I am so totally going through my granddads closet today! https://www.ebay.com/bhp/india-gulf-rupee).

The laws that have rupees as punishments and their implications
The Penal Law was promulgated (published) in 1960 which is why the punishments were in Rupees since that was the currency of Kuwait at that time. The currency was changed to Kuwaiti Dinars in 1961 (thanks to our awesome Constitution) and a new law had to be promulgated to change the Rupees to dinars. But you know how things take time in Kuwait and it took a little bit longer than expected to get this sorted… around 24 years.

In 1985 law no. 9 was published “for the replacement of the rupees by the Kuwaiti Dinar wherever stated in the Laws”, and in Article 1 of the law it states that rupees shall be exchanged to 75 fils, wherever they are mentioned in Kuwaiti Law.

So this is why Kuwait uses Rupees in the Kuwait Penal Law. If you want to read more about the Rupees history check out my sources [Here] and [Here].

If anyone finds Rupees in their mums closet then please email us a photo.

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
Have a Kuwait law related question? Email me at [email protected]

The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.




Categories
Law

Kuwait Law: Street Art and Abandoned Buildings

I am a big fan of street art and one of my favorite past times is to explore old Kuwaiti buildings looking for graffiti, taking photos and maybe collecting old bullets from the gulf war. But is it a crime to walk into old deserted buildings that the owner has neglected? Is it vandalism to tag those walls? Do the owners even know they are the owners?

I have to be honest, this topic is not something widely discussed in law school or at the office and I have never heard of a private law that discusses these matters, all I know of is the Kuwaiti Penal Law (yeah yeah yeah, the one with Rupees) include the rules for vandalism and trespassing. So let us look at the laws together:

1) Street Art or Vandalism?

First thing first, if you’re planning to tag a building you need to keep the following in mind. The building must not be a prayer place, a public office, a governmental building or a school building. The building should be abandoned with no one living in it or no one intending to fix it up to live in it (For example the amazing parking lot in old Salmiya and most of Failika island). I am also assuming your art is not just two circles with a pointy long oval in the middle.

If you want your canvas to be a new apartment complex or a mexican restaurant or a bookstore, then do what the amazing Monstariam does; get written consent from the owners first. Otherwise if the building has half a floor knocked off, no ceiling and 300 bullets have gone through it, then enjoy it. Just don’t be offensive please.

2) Exploring or Trespassing?

Article 254 and 255 both talk about entering buildings/trespassing owned by other people, but they also claim that the buildings should be in a possession of another person or inhabited by a person or is being prepared from someone to live in; and so the places that Mark (and I) have visited or intend to visit do not fall under those two articles.

PS: Does anyone have any creative ideas I could use with my collected bullets, please don’t tell me necklace.

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
Have a Kuwait law related question? Email me at [email protected]

The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.




Categories
Law

Kuwait Law: Defamation Online

So last week, Mark got accused of defamation and I just so happened to be working on a case regarding defamation at the office which is why I decided to write about it in this post.

What is defamation?
Defamation is an umbrella where all these other acts fall under: libel, calumny, vilification, slander and traducement (lawyers and their complicated words). Basically what defamation means is the coommunication of false statements that harms an individual/company/product/doggy/sect/book/religion/object etc

I know what you guys are most likely thinking, how can someone be accused of defamation for something written online? Most of you have most likely heard someone say there are no internet crimes in Kuwait. Well, that’s not true. Yes, technically there is no law dedicated to what happens online and there is no law that states anything about what anyone does virtually except for the new commercial law that has one article stating that board members can join board members meetings virtually (which I thought was awesome). But, just because there are no laws that regulate anything that takes place online it does not mean you can not get punished in Kuwait for defamation. So lets look at the law:

Article 209
“Any person who attributes to another, in a public place or within the earshot or sight of a person other that the victim, an event which hurts his reputation, shall be punished by incarceration for a period not exceeding 2 years and a fine not exceeding two thousand Rupees or either of both penalties”

Okay I know the article is not clear, and there was a lot of debate when I was back in law school whether this article can be implemented on someone that is defamed virtually. Thanks to the ministry, they’ve stated that it does apply. Here is a link to a statement by the MOI [Link]. There is even a case where Article 209 was used against tweeps.

There is also a department for cyber-crime in the MOI that falls under the General Department of Criminal Investigation.

So what does all the above mean? Do we or do we not have freedom of speech in Kuwait? Are we not allowed to state our opinions? Well we do have freedom of speech by the constitution and to some extent, we enjoy that in newspapers and on twitter. You can state your opinion but you need to state facts and you have to have good intentions and not harm anyones reputation or be rude.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Note: There is another article for defamation in newspapers under law no.3 for 2006 and other crimes can happen online.

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
Have a Kuwait law related question? Email me at [email protected]

The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.




Categories
Kuwait Law

Kuwait Law: Sexual Crimes

Last week I was helping out a friend with a university project related to sexual crimes under Kuwait’s Penal Law and I thought it would be something interesting to share on the blog as well because there’s a lot of confusion on the subject. Whether you or I agree or do not agree with the law, please stay safe and legal readers.

Note: Where I have written a person is guilty and age does not matter, that means the age does not matter for the crime to occur. That does not mean the person gets punished if underaged, instead juvenile laws are followed.




Categories
Animals & Wildlife Law

Kuwait Law: Animal Rights

With the very recent unfortunate animal mass murder event in Kuwait, I wanted to discuss the very unfortunate laws that regulate animal abuse in Kuwait.

The Kuwaiti constitution does not mention any animal rights.
The Kuwaiti penal (criminal law) does not specify that the abuse of animals is a crime.

However the only law that discusses the killing of an animal is article 253 of the criminal law:

A person who kills an animal owned by another, gives it a poisonous or harmful substance, injures it, makes it useless or decreases its benefits, deliberately and unjustifiable shall be punished up to 2 years of imprisonment and/or shall pay up to 2000 rupees

People make the mistake to think that the above article makes animal abuse a crime, it does not. The article specifies that the animal has to belong to someone so there is no regards for stray dogs. The article also specifies that the animal has to belong to someone other than the abuser. So if someone tortures their own dog, they are not punished.

Situation A

Person X kills the dog of person Y, with intent and for no reason. Person X is a criminal.

Situation B

Person X kills a stray dog, person X is not a criminal.

If you are wondering why the article is written that way, its because animals are defined in Kuwaiti law as a materialistic item, in other words… an object. Your dog is considered to be like your phone, your car or like your laptop. Animals in other countries are considered living creatures while in Kuwait the article above on animal killing is located under vandalism in the penal law.

Some of laws are appalling and I am trying think of ways we can get them to change the one on animal abuse. Here are my suggestions on how we could possibly have them change the law (please email me if you have other ideas):

1- Talk to the parliament members, whether you voted for them or against them, whether you believe in voting or not, talk to them, they legally represent the whole nation, Kuwaiti and non Kuwaiti, individual or an organization. CALL THEM. WRITE TO THEM! https://www.kna.kw/clt/index.asp (the site is getting more interactive, ask for their numbers, or email me I have some)

2- Call or write to the municipality https://www.baladia.gov.kw/cbox/

3- Protest, write or sign a petition, ask for a decree (its way more efficient and faster than a law)

Sometimes a situation must happen for a new decree, law or bylaw to be enforced or issues. Let this be one.

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
Have a Kuwait law related question? Email me at [email protected]

The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.




Categories
Animals & Wildlife Law

Kuwait laws you don’t need to know: Who let the dogs out?

As inspiration from an app called “The Dumbest Laws” I have decided to make a series of posts called “Kuwait laws you don’t need to know” so I could inform you on things you don’t need to be informed on. I don’t know how many of these posts I can come up with but one of my favorite things to do while working is finding and reading these weird laws.

So anyways, here is the first one, it’s an excerpt from an officially translated version (ignore their grammatical errors) of Law No.9 from 1969 “With Regards To The Possession of Dogs and Preventive Measures Against Rabies”:

Article 1
Possession of dogs is not permitted unless a license is obtained from the Ministry of Health

Article 2
License of one or more dogs requires an application to be submitted to the competent veterinary center giving the following details:

1- Name of applicant, title, age, nationality and address
2- The location where the dog will be kept
3- Breed of dog, color and distinctive marks
4- The source of where the dog was imported

Article 5
A collar with a metal plate shall be put around each dog, giving the serial number referred to, the plates are obtained from competent veterinary free of charge, the dog owner should request a replacement, in which case he will have to pay 250 fils.

If a dog is arrested without a plate it will be sent to the Dog Detainment Center, and will not be handed to the owner, unless he requests so 7 days from the day of arrest, and pays a fee of KD1

Article 6
All dogs of all types shall not be left in public places without being controlled with a mask on their mouth

Article 15
The provisions herein apply to Kuwait City. The City of Kuwait with regards to the implementation of this article means the vicinities surrounded by the third ring road, the Health and Educational Areas and the Sulbikhat area, unless the dog belongs to a Bedouin as watch or hunt dogs, whether the owners live in the city or the desert

Article 16
Violators of this law will be liable to a maximum term of one month imprisonment maximum and/or KD30 fine.

Keep in mind, this was back in 1969.

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
Have a Kuwait law related question? Email me at [email protected]

The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.




Categories
Information Kuwait Law

Kuwait Law: The Labor Law Post

The majority of the emails I get are regarding employment rights or should I say the lack of. I completely understand why I am getting all these questions. I am personally tired of how every time I walk into a store and ask an employee how long their shift is I get ridiculous answers like 8AM to midnight!

I realize how tough it is to go and speak out to your employer about a violation since I’ve been in that situation before. I also realize how bad Kuwait’s reputation has been over the years because of the way employees are being treated.

Recently I was hired by a company to help with some employee issues. The owner of the company stated that he didn’t know how he was supposed to treat his employees so I made an easy to read table with all the obligations of an employer as well as the rights of the employees. The full version of the law is hard-to-read and long so I rewrote it into a more direct and easy to understand language and placed them in a table for you below.

The law articles are mentioned in brackets for easy reference and the full version of the law is available [Here]. Click on the link below to view the rest of the post that includes the easy-to-read the table.




Categories
Kuwait Law

Kuwait Law: How does a non-Kuwaiti become a Kuwaiti?

According to the Kuwaiti government, in 2008 Kuwait’s population consisted of 3.3 million people, 2.3 million of which are foreigners. That’s double the number of Kuwaitis so I can understand why the Kuwaiti government would want to protect the Kuwaiti citizenship, and therefore making the procedures/requirements for getting a Kuwaiti citizenship tougher than other countries. But how tough are they?

Before I get into that, I have to explain the unique situation of the citizenship law that states how a non-Kuwaiti may become a Kuwaiti:

1) It was one of the first laws in Kuwait, even before the constitution and before Kuwait was officially recognized as a country. The citizenship law was promulgated (published) in 1959, via an Amiri decree. (Kuwait didn’t have a parliament then)

2) The law has been edited and re-edited, written and rewritten, promulgated and un-promuglated over and over throughout the years; 1959, 1960, 1965, 1966, 1970, 1980, 1982, 1986, 1987, 1994, 1995, 1998, 2000…

3) Under article 1(e) of the Administrative Court Legislation, the courts do not have jurisdiction over issues pertaining to the issuance of a citizenship. Basically what it means is the court can’t deal, handle or look into any issues that has to do with the citizenship.

How can a non-kuwaiti can be considered for the Kuwaiti citizenship?

First of all you need to have fulfilled the three requirements below:

Then you need one of the below:

So let’s say you have all the requirements, let’s say for example Mark (he is Arab and has a decent job) becomes Muslim for 5 years or his family has been in Kuwait since 1965 or the government really thinks that mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com is making significant contributions to the country. So what does mark have to do to get the Kuwaiti nationality? First thing Mark has to do is apply to citizenship department (All paper requirements found here) then:

I have deliberately missed out some points regarding the issuance of citizenship’s because I did not want to complicate things. If you require any further clarifications please let me know, also if you have any stories you want to share feel free to do so.

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
Have a Kuwait law related question? Email me at [email protected]

The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.

Picture on top by zDistrict




Categories
Information Law

Kuwait Law: Ramadan

Ramadan Mubarak everyone. Since Ramadan is starting I wanted to write a post just informing you on Ramadan legal issues:

Working Hours

I am sure you have all noticed the fact that working hours decrease in Ramadan. That’s not just your boss being nice but working hours have to decrease during Ramadan because it’s the law. According to article 64 of Kuwait Labor Law (for the private sector only):

“It is forbidden to allow workers to work for more than 48 hours per week or 8 hours a day, except in such events as are specified in this Law. Working hours during the month of Ramadan shall be equal to 36 hours per week”

A maximum 36 hours a week in Ramdan for a 6 day working week is 6 hours a day (basically a 2 hour discount).

Eating in Public

There is a legislation dedicated for just eating/drinking in public in daytime during Ramadan. The legislation is the smallest I have ever seen and is under law No. 44/1968 if anyone wants to look it up.

Punishment up to KD100 and/or jail for 1 month:
i) for anyone that eats/drinks in public in daytime during Ramadan
ii) for anyone that helps or forces anyone to eat/drink in daytime during Ramadan

Also, a business that is caught serving food/beverages to the public in daytime during Ramadan will be punished by having their place shutdown for 2 months.

Again Ramadan Mubarak to everyone.

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
Have a Kuwait law related question? Email me at [email protected]

The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.




Categories
Kuwait Law

Kuwait Law: How much is your body worth?

How much are your body parts worth in Kuwait? From a legal perspective and a legal perspective only, according to the Decree on the Regulation of the Table of Blood Money (DIYAH):

If someone hurts you by mistake with no criminal intent then they pay you the amounts listed below. If someone hurts you with criminal intent, then they pay the amounts listed below in addition to also getting punished for the crime.

Just a small note, the body parts add up. Death is actually cheaper than breaking an arm, a leg and losing an eye. Some animals cost more than KD10,000 so you would think a human life would be worth more.

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
Have a Kuwait law related question? Email me at [email protected]

The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.




Categories
Law

Kuwait Law: Rent

It’s been a while since my last post and since then I’ve gotten a lot of questions and rent was one of the most popular topics. That’s why I decided to put together a small FAQ on rent which you can take a look at below.

(All questions were answered according to rent law 35 for year 1978)

I have been living in my apartment for 3 years; can my landlord increase my rent?

No your landlord cannot increase rent. A landlord can only increase rent in the following situations:
1) If the tenant agrees to the proposed increase
2) Its been 5 years and the contract has ended (rule is once every 5 years)
3) The rent is 50% less than the market price

My landlord says he wants to increase the rent because he wants to do maintenance work? Does he have the right to do that?

No since the landlord is responsible for any maintenance and not the tenants.

I have a rental contract for 1 year but I’ve been living in the apartment for 18 months and the contract was never renewed. Now the landlord wants to kick me out. I know I have overstayed but do I have to leave immediately?

No in this situation he cannot kick you out but he can inform you to leave while giving you a grace period.
By law, if your rent contract ends and you continue living there then it renews by default for the same time of rent pay. Huh? What? Lawyers and there confusing terms… Simply put, if you pay rent on a monthly basis (which is how the majority of people pay rent in Kuwait) then your contract will renew automatically for a month at a time. If you paid rent every three months, then it will renew for 3 months, if you paid rent every 6 months your rent will renew every 6 months and so on.

What is the grace period?

Grace periods are only for when contracts renew by default (as explained above) and they depend on how often you pay your rent.

When can you really get kicked out? (with no grace period)

Reasons a landlord can kick you out are (for residencies and not commercial contracts)
1) If tenant hasn’t paid rent
2) If the tenant rents out the residency to a third person without permission
3) If the residence is being used for illegal activities
4) If the building is no longer structurally safe
5) If the landlord wants to rebuild the building or reconstruct it. There are a lot of variables for this one which I won’t get into.

My American friends can rent an apartment without a marriage certificate but I can’t seem to do the same? Do different citizens get treated differently in Kuwait by law?

Nationalities are not mentioned in the law so the law doesn’t talk about one nationality being treated differently than another (unless its Kuwaiti but that’s not in the rent laws), and therefore it is very disappointing to see that this kind of discrimination is being implemented in Kuwait.

Marriage certificates are also not mentioned in the law and my guess and only guess is that they ask for marriage certificates because unmarried couples might possibly engage in illegal sexual activities. The law restricts apartments from being used for illegal activities and sexual activity between two unmarried couples is considered illegal by law.

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
Have a Kuwait law related question? Email me at [email protected]

The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.