Good advice

The crosses in public buildings in Bavaria may remain hanging. This was decided by the Federal Administrative Court (AZ: BVerwG10 C 3.22). This means that the Free State of Bavaria is not obliged to remove the crosses displayed in its official buildings in accordance with the cross decree. The crosses are considered an expression of Bavaria's historical and cultural character. The plaintiffs, ideological communities,...

A search of a home on suspicion of "adbusting" is unreasonable. The Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfGE) upheld a corresponding constitutional complaint (ref.: 2 BvR 1749/20). In "adbusting", advertising posters are redesigned in such a way that the original meaning is altered or ridiculed. The person in question was attacked when a Bundeswehr poster was...

When contesting business plan resolutions in condominium owners' associations, the grievance of a complaining owner must continue to be determined on the basis of their share in the business plan. This was decided by the Federal Court of Justice (AZ: V ZB 9/23). This also applies following the amendment to the law, which has been in force since December 1, 2020 and stipulates that only advances and reserves may be...

Untrue allegations made by a tenant in a legal dispute with the landlord can justify an ordinary termination in accordance with Section 573 (1), (2) No. 1 BGB. This is the result of a ruling by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) (VIII ZR 147/22). However, this requires a comprehensive case-by-case examination, whereby the relevance and scope of the false statements as well as any previous breaches of contract...

A tenant is not in default of payment if the landlord fails to make agreed donations to pay the rent. This was decided by the Frankfurt am Main Higher Regional Court (AZ: 2 U 115/22). The specific case concerned a non-profit foundation that operated a museum in a rented commercial building. The landlord made a donation with which the charitable foundation paid the rent...

A wildlife camera on a property can violate the personal rights of neighbors. This was decided by the local court in Munich (case no.: 171 C 11188/22). The local court thus confirmed a temporary injunction prohibiting the owner of the camera from setting it up on her property if she could use it to record the neighbor's area or give the impression of doing so. Although the camera...

After the deletion of lawful compulsory entries, property owners are not entitled to a rewriting of the land register entries. This was decided by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH, AZ: V ZB 17/22). In this case, an owner had requested the land registry to create new land register sheets from which the deleted entries would no longer be visible. As the...

Losses from the rental of properties with a living space of more than 250 square meters cannot be automatically offset against other income of the taxpayer. This applies in particular to luxury properties whose market rent does not adequately reflect the high residential value and the associated costs, which often makes it impossible to cover the costs of letting. The Federal Fiscal Court (BFH) has...

A buyer cannot always demand a refund of the purchase price from the seller if it later transpires that there is no building permit for the property (AZ: 6 U 210/22). This was recently decided by the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main (OLG). The buyer had purchased an apartment in Frankfurt's Nordend district for 330,000 euros. However, the purchase contract contained an exclusion of liability for material defects...

A Porsche Coupé 911 driver wants to drive out of the underground parking garage of a residential complex. She opens the door with a sensor key and drives off. The garage door closes unexpectedly, crashes onto the roof of her car and damages it. Because the garage door was open and hit her car as she was driving out, she believes that the company breached its duty to maintain road safety.