The Supreme Court examined the case involving the landlord that purchased the leased premises, in respect of which the lease agreement was concluded and the security payment was deposited. The Supreme Court stated that due to transfer of ownership to the premises from the previous landlord to the new landlord, the latter assumes all rights and obligations under the lease agreement concluded in respect of the premises in full, and the previous owner is out of the lease relations. Under such circumstances the new landlord may be forced to return the security payment deposited by the tenant to the previous landlord.

The company concluded the lease agreement in respect of the premises with the individual entrepreneur (the initial landlord), in accordance with which it deposited the security payment to the latter. Later the entrepreneur sold the premises to another person (the subsequent landlord). The tenant and the subsequent landlord agreed to terminate the agreement subject to payment of compensation for termination to the tenant. However, the parties thought that the security payment was to be returned not by the new landlord, but by the initial landlord, and in this regard the tenant submitted the claim to the court on the recovery of the security payment from the initial landlord. The court dismissed the claim since the initial landlord was no longer the party to the lease agreement.

Subsequently, the tenant tried to recover the security payment from the new landlord, but the court of three instances dismissed its claim. However, the Supreme Court did not agree with the said approach of the lower courts and remanded the case for reconsideration, referring, in particular, to the fact that the new landlord received all rights and obligations of the landlord under the lease agreement, and that the transfer of rights and obligations of the landlord to another person may not worsen the position of the tenant, including by depriving the latter of the right to return the security payment (see Ruling of the Judicial Panel on Economic Disputes of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated 18 June 2021 No. 306-ЭС21-4034).