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"Claim to high repayments" - That's how often the rental price brake is violated

Many tenants are worried about rising energy costs.

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"Claim to high repayments" - That's how often the rental price brake is violated

Many tenants are worried about rising energy costs. In the coming year, advance payments are likely to increase for millions of households. At the same time, however, the rent burden has continued to rise - and not infrequently to unacceptably high amounts.

Anyone who has signed a new rental agreement in recent years often pays too much rent, especially in large cities. This is shown by a previously unique study of the Düsseldorf housing market, which was presented on Friday. According to this, about every fourth rental apartment in the state capital is unacceptably expensive because the landlords concerned do not comply with the rules of the rental price brake.

More than 22,000 apartment advertisements from the past three years were examined. According to the study by the analysis company Mietenmonitor on behalf of the Düsseldorf Tenants' Association, there is a suspicion of a violation of the price brake in more than 5,700 apartments.

The analysts looked at the usual comparative rents in all districts of Düsseldorf based on equipment and location and compared them with the rents demanded in the advertisements. According to the rental price brake, these may normally be a maximum of ten percent above the local comparative rent. That's what the law says.

But that is not the case in 26 percent of the cases, the rent monitor experts determined. Anyone who concludes a corresponding contract or has concluded it in recent years pays their landlord, sometimes considerably high sums too much.

In 50 percent of the suspected apartments, the limit of the rental price brake is exceeded by at least 80.70 euros and thus 968 euros per year. For 75 percent of the offers identified as too expensive, at least 33.12 euros are charged too much per month - and thus 397 euros per year.

Violations are increasingly occurring in the city's central and expensive locations: "In the old town and Carlstadt, almost every second rental is suspicious," says the study. "Many tenants are likely to be entitled to high repayments," says the chairman of the Düsseldorf Tenants' Association, Hans-Jochem Witzke.

The study only applies to Düsseldorf, but the phenomenon exists in different forms nationwide - everywhere where the federal states have used a rental price brake, i.e. in around 410 cities and communities. For tenancies that were concluded after April 1st, 2020, tenants can retrospectively reclaim overpaid amounts in the event of a breach of the rental price brake. In the case of tenancies that were concluded before April 1st, 2020, you must first complain to the landlord and may only reclaim overpaid amounts from the time of the complaint.

According to market experts, excessive prices are also being demanded, especially in the capital. "The extent of these breaches of the law by landlords is frightening," says Ulrike Hamann, Managing Director of the Berlin Tenants' Association. The need for advice on rent control is enormous. "However, not everyone knows about their rights, especially people who move to the city from countries with weaker tenancy laws," says Hamann.

"I expect a higher number for Berlin than in Düsseldorf," says Daniel Halmer, founder and managing director of the legal service provider Conny. "According to our estimation, it is more likely that 50 percent of landlords do not adhere to the rental price brake," says Halmer, whose company helps tenants to enforce their rights through debt collection procedures.

The German Tenants' Association has been demanding a simplification of the rental price brake for years. In addition, it should apply nationwide. Because the price rule, specified in the German Civil Code (paragraph 556d), must be put into effect by the federal states by ordinance. Some countries failed, made formal errors, and courts conceded the price brake.

The deputy head of the SPD parliamentary group, Dirk Wiese, fears that the mood towards refugees could change. Many people are currently looking for protection in Germany. More and more municipalities are reaching their capacity limits and don't know how to accommodate people.

Source: WORLD / Viktoria Schulte

Other countries, such as North Rhine-Westphalia, changed the areas of application over time. Initially, there was a rental price brake in 25 cities and communities in the most populous federal state. Today there are still 18: Aachen, Bielefeld, Bocholt, Brühl, Erkrath, Frechen, Hürth, Kleve, Langenfeld (Rhineland), Leverkusen, Meerbusch, Monheim am Rhein, Neuss, Paderborn, Ratingen, Sankt Augustin and Troisdorf.

The price brake also does not apply to every apartment and every case. There is grandfathering, for example, for previous rents that were already above the permissible rent. New buildings that were used and rented for the first time after October 1, 2014 are also excluded. There is also an exception for comprehensive modernizations.

The rental price brake also applies to furnished apartments – contrary to what is often claimed. Here landlords may only demand a current value surcharge for the value of the furniture.

Landlords must inform interested parties in advance of all exceptions and special cases - which they often do not do or do incompletely, criticizes the lawyer and Conny boss Halmer. “Most of the time, information is only shown briefly when the contract is concluded, but there are no accompanying documents to prove this. The risk of not complying with the information obligation is also very low for landlords. If the tenant can prove a violation, landlords only have to reduce the rent for two years. Then she goes up again. In a way, it is rational to violate the duty to provide information.”

It's complicated. And tenants who have the impression that their landlord is violating the price brake must clarify this directly with him, in the event of a dispute even through civil law. In cities with high demand, many tenants do not dare to take this step, Halmer knows: "Before the contract is signed, hardly any tenant dares to point out to the landlord that rent controls and information are available - that sort of sorts you out."

According to the author of the study, Martin Peters, the basic problem with the rental price brake is that it can only be invoked in direct disputes. "It does not provide for sanctions for violations," said Peters. Landlords only have to pay back overpaid rent, there is no fine. "As a result, landlords have no direct financial incentive to adhere to the rental price brake of their own accord."

Mietverein boss Witzke therefore proposes “that the city of Düsseldorf warns the providers of apartments that are too expensive in writing and urges them to comply with the rent limits. That would be a nationwide, legally and socially effective measure in the interests of the entire citizenry. The city of Freiburg, for example, is already taking a similar approach.”

The city in the south of Baden-Württemberg has created a department for affordable housing that warns landlords if they exceed a certain limit. In this way, tenants are partly taken out of the game.

The analysis company Mietenmonitor collects online apartment advertisements nationwide and is currently collecting data in around 60 cities on the basis of the local comparative rent - including in Freiburg, where the company is based. Mietenmonitor is also used there by the landlords' association Haus

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