Ground rent
Under ground rent ( lat. Solarium ) to the recurring services understands a fee for the use of ground leases . The ground rent must be determined in advance for the entire term of the leasehold. A sliding ground rent can only be secured by making a reservation . If it is secured in rem, it belongs to the respective owner of the property. The ground rent is legally regulated in the Heritable Building Rights Act .
Ground rent amount
The ground rent to be paid by the leaseholder is calculated as a percentage of the property value and is freely negotiable. As a rule, 3% to 5% of the property value is set as the annual ground rent to be paid in the leasehold contract.
In order to reflect the economic changes in the course of the existence of the heritable building right, a value protection clause is regularly included in new contracts in which the rent is adjusted to the general economic conditions. As a basis of assessment, statistically determined indices such as the consumer price index are mostly used, on the basis of which the new ground rent is calculated. However, the consumer price index only reflects monetary developments (inflation), not real economic developments. That is why it is not really suitable for securing the value of the ground rent. If a capital preservation clause cannot or can no longer achieve its goal, according to the judgment of the Federal Court of Justice of November 18, 2011 (V ZR 31/11), a correction of the capital preservation is possible by way of the supplementary interpretation of the contract or the loss of the business basis.
An increase in the ground rent for buildings built on the basis of the leasehold and which serve residential purposes is to be regarded as unreasonable according to Section 9a of the Leasehold Act if it goes beyond the change in general economic conditions that have occurred since the contract was signed. This change in general conditions thus represents the cap (upper limit) for the ground rent adjustment.
Real security of the ground rent
The contractually stipulated ground rent is usually secured in rem by entering it in the land register as a real burden . Furthermore, a note regarding the claims from the ground rent adjustment ( see above) will be regularly entered here.
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. Section 9 (1) of the Heritable Building Rights Act
- ↑ Text of the Heritable Building Rights Act
- ↑ Albert M. Seitz: The typical source of error in determining the market value in connection with heritable building rights: the ground rent . In: Land market and land value 1/2016, pp. 6–15.
