Judgment on extortionate rent in Berlin: End of impunity

400 euros for a 30 square meter apartment on Kreuzberg’s Oranienstrasse – Berlin tenants have actually long since gotten used to prices like this. Wrongfully. Because at more than 13 euros per square meter, the rent is twice as high as the local comparative rent shown in the rent index. According to the rent index from 2021, only a rent of 195.94 euros would have been permitted; according to that from 2023, a maximum of 206.24 euros would have been permitted.

The Tiergarten district court also came to this assessment on Friday. It condemned the landlord for charging exorbitant rent. It is the first time in many years that the court has punished a landlord for this. The Berlin real estate company must therefore pay back 4,600 euros in excess rent paid and an additional fine of 1,300 euros for the illegal rent increase under the Economic Crimes Act. The criminal offense applies to rent increases of more than 50 percent.

The presiding judge was aware of the signal effect of the verdict. According to the Berlin Tenants’ Association, he concluded his reasons for the judgment with the words: “The regulation on rent increases was always applicable law and is not just on paper. Word should get around.”

The fact that the paragraph was rediscovered is largely due to two developments. One is this Mietwucher App the linksthrough which tenants have been able to check their rent and send reports to the district offices for more than a year. On the other hand, it is up to the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district office, which is the first in the city to vigorously pursue such cases. The district office was already successful in October a fine of more than 26,000 euros was imposed on a landlord.

Tenant protection is manual work

The current case also reached the district office via the rent usurious app, says the responsible district councilor Regine Sommer-Wetter (Left) to the taz. A responsible employee of the housing office then inspected and measured the apartment, conducted correspondence with the landlord and finally sent a fine notice, which the landlord did not accept.

Sommer-Wetter sees the fact that the court has now decided in the interests of the district office as an “important signal for Berlin”. It’s good news for tenants that “you can’t rip them off.” Excessive rents are “not a trivial offense,” emphasized the city councilor. The district is currently processing a total of 382 cases of suspected rent usury.

With more employees there could be significantly more, according to the summer weather. Anyway: Most recently, the Senate Department for Urban Development sent eight trainees to the districts to help them prosecute illegally excessive rents. Advertisements are currently underway for a further 19 permanent positions.

According to the Berlin tenants’ association, the signaling effect of the judgment, which is not yet legally binding, is initially limited. The fact that the landlord “exploited” the tenants’ predicament caused by the housing shortage, as formulated as a condition in Section 5 of the Economic Crimes Act, played no role in the proceedings. This wording is considered a high hurdle for landlords to be convicted.

However, this is exactly what will be at stake in an upcoming trial at the beginning of February, when a tenant is called as a witness and then has to explain that she had no choice but to move into the overpriced apartment. If the landlord were also convicted here, this could pave the way for further prosecution of rent-extortion landlords. However, it would be easier to take action against them purely for non-compliance with the rent index. The Berlin Tenants’ Association and the German Tenants’ Association are therefore calling on Federal Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig (SPD) to “delete this superfluous element of the offense”.