Good advice

Landlords can pass on the costs of felling a rotten tree on a rental property to their tenants. This is the result of a ruling by the Federal Court of Justice (AZ: VIII ZR 107/20). According to the ruling, the costs of felling a tree are among the apportionable costs of garden maintenance. In the case in question, a tenant had taken legal action against a housing association that had cut down a rotten...

If a tenant has to carry out decorative repairs according to the tenancy agreement, they do not have to be carried out perfectly. This is the conclusion reached by the Berlin Regional Court (Ref.: 65 S 264/20). In this case, a landlady demanded compensation from a former tenant. She claimed that her repainting of the walls and ceilings had led to a "worsening" of the previously professionally...

Tenants who are given notice of termination without notice (extraordinary termination) due to rent arrears can usually still undo this. To do so, they must settle the rent arrears within two months. This practice is known as grace period payment. However, the grace period payment does not apply if the tenants have been given a grace period in addition to...

Development charges may not be levied indefinitely. This was decided by the Federal Constitutional Court. In this case, a property owner who owns several properties in Rhineland-Palatinate had filed a lawsuit. The road bordering his properties had been extended in 1985/1986 and opened to public traffic as a municipal road in 2007....

If someone needs to care for a close relative and would like to move into the same house, they can give notice to the current tenants on the grounds of personal use. This is the result of a ruling by the Munich Local Court (case no. 453 C 3432/21). In this case, a grandniece took legal action against the tenants - an elderly couple - following the failure of pre-trial settlement negotiations and was ultimately...

If tenants have to pay for a broadband cable connection for the entire duration of their tenancy agreement, this does not violate the Telecommunications Act according to the current legal situation. This was recently decided by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH). However, this practice has no longer been permitted since December 1, 2021 anyway. The reason for this is an amendment to the...

The Federal Administrative Court (BVerwG) has partially overturned the right of first refusal for properties in Berlin and thus upheld the complaint of a real estate company. The right of first refusal is normally intended to ensure that houses are not bought up and the tenants move away - for example due to renovation measures that result in higher rents. In the present case...

Do special rights apply to individual solar modules of a ground-mounted photovoltaic system? The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) recently dealt with this question and referred back four higher regional court rulings (V ZR 225/19/V ZR 8/20/V ZR 44/20 and V ZR 69/20). The plaintiff in these proceedings was an insolvency administrator of a company that had purchased a photovoltaic system in 2010. This had previously been...

The sale and installation of a stairlift are contracts for work and services that can be revoked within 14 days. This was decided by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) following a complaint by a consumer advice center against a distributor of curved stairlifts. In the case in question, the distributor of curved stairlifts had not provided its customers with a statutory right of...