In many cases, owners want to enjoy the peace and quiet of their garden, but neighbors trespassing can become a nuisance. The Regional Court of Lübeck has ruled that, under certain circumstances, neighbors still have a right to pass through the property (AZ: 3 O 309/22). In this particular case, two neighbors, a woman and a man, were in dispute. As the man's property is located in...
Does a tenant always have to pay compensation for use if he returns the apartment late? The Hanau Regional Court recently dealt with this question (case reference 2 S 35/22). In the case in question, the tenant had given notice to leave his apartment with effect from August 31, 2017. However, the landlord objected to the termination due to a termination exclusion clause in the tenancy agreement. It came to...
In a legal dispute over a gas bill, the Munich District Court rejected a claim for payment of EUR 4,259.56. The plaintiff had purchased gas from a supplier from March 2020 to March 2021 for the invoiced gas consumption of 63,528 kWh and was supposed to pay the stated amount. However, she did not want to do so. She argued that the calculated gas consumption in her annual bill was far too high.
If spouses separate, one partner does not necessarily have to move out in order for a separation to actually be assumed. Rather, an appropriate degree of physical separation within the shared home is sufficient. This includes living and sleeping separately and the absence of significant personal relationships. This was decided by the Frankfurt am Main Higher Regional Court (AZ: 1 UF...
If a living room and a basement room are rented separately with two contracts, the rent cap does not apply to the basement room. This was decided by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH; case reference: VIII ZR 94/21). In the case in question, tenants had paid an apartment for an initial basic rent of 850 euros. They also concluded a basement usage agreement with their landlord for 79 euros per month. The rent for the...
A 70-year-old owner will no longer have to walk the more than 100 steps to his apartment. Instead, he can now have an external elevator installed on his apartment building - even though it is a listed building and even received the City of Munich's façade award for the front building in 1983. This was recently decided by the Federal Court of Justice (AZ: V ZR 244/22 and V ZR 33/23). In the...
Construction companies cannot rely on material price increases to deviate from the agreed fixed price of a construction project. This was decided by the Palatinate Higher Regional Court (AZ: 5 U 188/22). In this case, a married couple took legal action against a construction company that did not want to carry out the agreed construction of a solid construction house at a fixed price of around 300,000 euros, but instead wanted to...
New regulations in the Condominium Act offer more flexibility in the allocation of costs for maintenance measures. According to the judgments V ZR 81/23 and V ZR 87/23 of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH), condominium associations can now pass resolutions that provide for a specific cost allocation at the expense of individual owners for the maintenance of the common property. This makes it possible to...
The Berlin I Regional Court has ordered the confiscation of a property and other assets (case reference: 502 KLs 27/21). The basis for this was the suspicion of money laundering against the owner of the property, among others. The Berlin public prosecutor's office had suspected the accused of having invested illegally acquired funds in real estate in order to conceal their origin. Despite...
Resolutions passed during the coronavirus pandemic at a so-called representatives' meeting remain valid. This was recently decided by the Federal Court of Justice (AZ: V ZR 80/23). The decision is based on the fact that the resolutions are not invalid solely because some of the owners were only represented by proxies. In the present case, one...
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