Brokers are also allowed to work with the Apartment search do not discriminate based on ethnic origin. The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) decided this on Thursday. If brokers violate this obligation, they must Pay compensation.
In this specific case, a German teacher with the Pakistani name Humaira Waseem was interested in renting an apartment in Groß-Gerau. But even though she asked early, the agent said there were no more viewing appointments. That made her skeptical. When she applied under the name “Julia Schneider,” she was given a viewing appointment.
Her suspicion that the broker was discriminating based on ethnic origin was reinforced by further test requests. Her husband and sister, both with Pakistani names, were not given an appointment to see the property. However, fictional people named Schmidt or Spieß were invited.
The teacher therefore sued the broker for inadmissible discrimination for compensation under the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG). However, the Groß-Gerau district court dismissed the lawsuit because the AGG did not apply to brokers. She was only successful in her appeal to the Darmstadt Regional Court. The broker was sentenced to pay compensation of 3,000 euros. However, the broker appealed against the Darmstadt ruling – thus enabling the Federal Court of Justice to make a landmark ruling.
Brokers are the bottleneck
“The ban on discrimination under civil law also applies to brokers,” said the presiding BGH judge Thomas Koch. That was the “core of the legal dispute”. The aim of the AGG – to effectively prevent discrimination based on ethnic origin, for example – can only be achieved if the brokers are also bound to the AGG, said Judge Koch. Since the real estate agents decide on invitations to viewing appointments, they are the “bottleneck” in the housing market. As auxiliary persons of the landlords, they are also not allowed to discriminate and would have to pay compensation in the event of violations, the BGH decided. So the sum remains at 3,000 euros.
The AGG was introduced in 2006 and implemented several EU directives. It applies to the labor market and to mass transactions under civil law, for example in supermarkets or restaurants. In the housing market, it applies unrestrictedly to landlords with more than 50 apartments, i.e. to all legal discrimination criteria, from gender to age to sexual identity. For landlords with fewer than 50 apartments, only discrimination based on race and ethnic origin is prohibited. However, if landlords and tenants live in the same house or on the same property, landlords can choose without any restrictions due to the proximity. If there is evidence of one unacceptable discrimination According to the AGG, there is a reversal of the burden of proof. In the case of Humaira Waseem, the evidence was that people with Pakistani names were not given appointments, while people with German names were always invited. The broker could now have proven that there were legitimate reasons for this strange practice. But he didn’t succeed. After the verdict, Humaira Waseem said she now felt “a sense of justice.” Nevertheless, the experience of discrimination also sobered her: “No matter how integrated and educated I am, I will always remain a foreigner in Germany because of my name.” She called on other affected people not to be discouraged and to defend themselves. She and her husband have now found another rental apartment in which she feels comfortable. She also gets along well with the German landlord. (Ref: 1 ZR 129/25)