When a tenant owes multiple amounts to the landlord under a commercial lease, it may be necessary to determine which debt a payment should be allocated to.
The Civil Code of Quebec sets out rules regarding the allocation of payments. When a debtor has several debts of the same nature to the same creditor, they may indicate, at the time of payment, which debt they intend to pay.
When the debtor does not make this allocation himself, the rules provided by law make it possible to determine to which debt the payment should be applied, in particular taking into account debts that have fallen due and the interest that the debtor may have in paying one rather than the other.
A commercial lease may also contain provisions regarding the allocation of sums received by the landlord. It is therefore important to review the lease terms and applicable laws to determine how a payment should be allocated when multiple amounts are owed.