With the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court published today, a large piece of legal certainty has been won for Berlin tenants and landlords.
The court declared the Berlin law (MietWoG), also known as the rent cap, to be incompatible with the German constitution. According to the court, the state of Berlin did not have the legislative authority to enact a law that intervenes in areas that are already conclusively regulated by a federal law, as is the case with tenancy law.
The idea behind the law to create affordable housing was certainly well-intentioned, but the law had only achieved the opposite. As I myself observed in my consulting practice, both tenants and landlords were greatly unsettled. Many landlords decided not to move to Berlin and put their apartments up for sale, and investors were put off. As a result, many apartments were taken out of the rental market, exacerbating the housing shortage.
What does the decision mean for landlords and tenants?
- The rent that was payable before the rent cap came into force will apply again.
- The landlord can now demand the difference between the originally agreed rent and the lowered rent from the tenant for the past months as well.
- In rental agreements with so-called shadow rents (depending on the concrete formulation of the agreement), the higher rent will now have to be paid and, depending on the contractual formulation, the difference for the past months will also have to be paid.
- Supplements for furnishings in furnished apartments are valid again (proportion of the current value of the furniture).
- the rent levels according to federal law, the so-called "Mietpreisbremse / rent brake" (§§ 556d ff. BGB) apply
- Attention (!) Short-term rentals, conversion of apartments to vacation homes remain severely restricted. Also the limitation of rental contracts is still only possible under narrow conditions.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
The official press release of the Federal Constitutional Court can be found here (german):
The decision of the BVerfG can be found here in long text (german):
