Paradoxically but true: in Germany, it is very difficult for a landlord to raise the rent, but for a tenant to lower it – much easier
The book explains in an understandable way the legal aspects of various problems that many Germans face. Individual chapters are devoted, for example, to conflicts with employers, debt obligations, bank loans, insurance disputes, internet spam, returning purchased goods.
Deutsche Welle chose for an introduction to Kitz's book the chapters that deal with renting housing and related possible problems. The topic is relevant because only about 20 percent of Germans live in their own apartments and houses. The rest rent them. They rent from private individuals or private companies, because there is no public housing in Germany. There are only cheap municipal apartments intended for the poor (this requires a special referral from the social welfare office). But there are few such apartments, as indeed there are few poor people.
An important role in protecting the rights of tenants in Germany is played by the German Tenants' Association (Deutscher Mieterbund), which unites regional associations. There are over 200 of them in Germany, and there is no more or less large city in the country that does not have a branch of this organization.
Anyone can join. The annual fee is between 60 and 100 euros (varies by federal state). This is a small amount considering that you get professional lawyers specialized in this area of law. Usually, a threatening letter signed by a lawyer from the German Tenants' Association is enough to resolve the conflict in your favor. The Cologne branch, for example, proudly states on its website that 97 percent of the disputes it gets involved in are resolved before going to court.
However, landlords do not like to go to court not only because they face experienced lawyers, but primarily because German laws themselves provide reliable protection against possible landlord arbitrariness. For instance, you cannot simply raise the rent citing that 'everything has become more expensive.' The landlord must justify it by an increase in the average rent in a specific area.
Such data are given in official reference books that municipalities publish every two years. In such a reference book, the landlord can (and should) find a similar apartment in size and comfort level with a higher rent and, so to speak, present it to the tenant. But even then, the rent in popular urban areas can be raised by a maximum of 15 percent over three years in total.
And what about eviction! Just like that, before the expiration of the lease agreement, a tenant can be evicted only in two cases: if he grossly violates the terms of the contract (does not pay rent, turns the apartment into a pigsty, terrorizes neighbors, and so on) or if the landlord himself wants to move into the apartment. Not his relatives, only himself. But even in this case, the law provides exceptions.
The main one is the so-called 'social clause'. It applies to families with children, elderly people who have lived in the apartment for many years, and disabled people. They can only be evicted if they themselves agree to move out. An acquaintance of mine, who was renting a private house with his wife and two children, asked for 25 thousand euros for his consent, and the landlord, knowing that suing here was useless and would drag on for several years, paid this compensation just to get his house vacated.
Such situations, of course, occur infrequently. Volker Kitz in his book focuses more on problems and conflicts that tenants encounter much more often. We have already talked about raising rent. Now – about lowering it. Almost any defects in the apartment allow this. Of course, you first need to draw the landlord's attention to them in writing, giving him some reasonable time to fix the defects, but if this does not happen, you can quite legally pay less, and in extreme cases (if the heating does not work in winter or the apartment walls are completely covered with mold) not pay at all.
The author of the book 'Is It Right or Am I Right?' provides a kind of catalog of rent reductions in various cases, compiled from precedent decisions of German courts. For example, for poorly insulated windows, rent can be reduced by 5 percent, for rusty water coming from the tap – by 20 percent, for a faulty shower – by 30 percent...
Very often conflicts between German tenants and landlords arise because of noise. Of course, if a person, when moving into the apartment, saw that a disco was located nearby, he cannot later complain about it. But if the disco opened later and cheerful people crowd at its doors until two in the morning, then the rent can be reduced by 25 percent. And if construction started under the window and jackhammers are rattling, then even by 50 percent.
All this, we emphasize once again, are only guidelines. In each individual case, the court may reduce or, conversely, increase this amount. But the trend is clear: tenants in Germany are under reliable protection.