Good advice

BHW-Bausparkasse may not charge an annual fee during the savings phase of home loan and savings contracts. This was recently decided by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH, AZ: XI ZR 551/21). In this case, the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzbv) had filed a lawsuit against the building society in question. The building society had demanded an annual fee of 12 euros from its customers with a building society account. Wrongly, as the BGH...

A property seller cannot necessarily be held responsible for the remediation of a property if contaminated sites are suspected there. This is because it is necessary to check in advance whether the soil is actually contaminated. This has now been decided by the Federal Court of Justice (V ZR 213/21) and therefore referred the case back to the Munich Higher Regional Court (OLG). In the case in question, a...

When tenants move into a new apartment, they automatically receive electricity from a basic supplier - unless they opt for an optional supplier. But what happens if a tenant has opted for an optional supplier, but the meter numbers of two neighboring apartments are mixed up? The Frankfurt am Main district court has now ruled on this. In the case in question, the...

Even if an owner is not responsible for pests on her property, she must combat them and bear the costs. At least that is what the Berlin Administrative Court has now ruled (VG 14 L 1235/22). In this case, an unknown person had provided rats with food and drink on a property in Berlin-Reinickendorf. The rat infestation had been reported to the public health department and...

The Siegburg district court doubts the accuracy of the 2021 rent index in Troisdorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, and has instead set a different net comparative rent for an apartment with the help of an expert. In this case (case no. 123 C 60/21), a landlord wanted to increase the rent for his 78 square meter maisonette apartment from around 560 euros (7.18 per square meter) to...

Private landlords may not recklessly rent out their property to relatives at an exorbitant rent. This has now been decided by the Frankfurt am Main Local Court (AZ: 940 OWi 862 Js 44556/21). In this case, a private landlord had rented out his 53 square meter 2-room apartment to his cousin and his cousin's family for 810 euros per month. The local comparative rent was allowed to...

If damage occurs after mains water damage due to defective pipes in a condominium owner's apartment, this must be paid for jointly by all condominium owners. This was decided by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH)/judgement of September 16, 2022 - V ZR 69/21 V ZR 69/21 In this case, a community of owners had taken out building insurance for the special...

Property owners in Neuwied now have to dig much deeper into their pockets. This is because the Koblenz Administrative Court ruled that the city can raise the assessment rate for property tax B from 420% to 610% (5 K 1000/21.KO & 5 K 999/21.KO). Owners of residential properties had filed a complaint against this. However, without success. The judges from Koblenz ruled that the...

A gas heater for an apartment is a one-off requirement that the Jobcenter must pay for. This was decided by the Essen Regional Social Court (LSG) (L 19 AS 1736/21). In this case, a tenant had sued because the gas heater in her apartment had broken down after almost 50 years. However, the rental agreement with the landlord stipulated that the rented property did not include the...

Two common ash trees over 100 years old are living up to their name in the town of Andernach. Because of them, an owner is not allowed to build a detached house on his adjacent property. This was recently decided by the Koblenz Administrative Court (1 K 1047/21.KO). The reason for this is that the common ash trees are listed as a natural monument. The Koblenz Administrative Court states: "The...