rent increase

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This article or paragraph presents the situation in Germany . Help us to describe the situation in other countries.

A rent increase in the course of a tenancy can have various reasons. For example, a landlord is granted the right to a rent increase in order to adjust the rent to a general rent increase . But modernization measures can also be a reason for a rent increase. This has repeatedly led to political disputes in Germany , particularly since the 1950s .

Legal situation

In accordance with Section 557 (1) BGB, the contracting parties can agree to a rent increase during the current tenancy. If an agreement does not come about, termination for the purpose of rent increase is legally excluded. A rent increase can only be requested by the landlord in compliance with the statutory provisions. The landlord needs the consent of the tenant for his rent increase request up to the local comparative rent . If the landlord does not receive consent from the tenant, he must sue for consent . In the event of a rent increase request, the tenant has a special right of termination according to § 561 BGB . He can extraordinarily terminate the tenancy at the end of the second month after receipt of the declaration from the landlord at the end of the month after the next. He then does not have to pay the increased rent. However, an exclusion of these regulations according to § 549 Paragraph 2 and 3 BGB, which u. a. applies to student and youth dormitories as well as living space for temporary use.

On the one hand, according to the type of rent, i.e. whether the agreed rent is an index rent , a graduated rent or a rent based on the local comparative rent , and on the other hand, according to the object of the rent, i.e. a living space or a commercial property is differentiated.

The main difference with regard to a rent increase is that the possibilities of a time limit are very limited for living space . Living space can then only be terminated for an important reason, commercial real estate in principle, but also for the purpose of increasing rent. The protection regulations for living space are much stricter.

Usual local comparative rent

The rent increase up to the local comparative rent is regulated in §§ 558 to 558e BGB. The prerequisite for this form of rent increase is that the previous rent was unchanged for at least 15 months at the time at which the rent increase is to occur ( Section 558 (1) BGB). Rent increases due to modernization ( § 559 BGB) or due to increased ancillary costs ( § 560 BGB) remain unaffected.

According to the statutory provisions, the landlord can request consent to the rent increase up to the amount of the local comparative rent. This is the rent that has been agreed on site for apartments of a comparable type, size, equipment, condition and location over the past four years. In the opinion of the Berlin Regional Court, when assessing the furnishing of the apartment, it depends on the time of moving in, which the landlord has to prove.

In the rent increase letter, the landlord must justify in writing why he considers the rent demanded of him to be customary for the location. He can refer to an attached report by a publicly appointed and sworn expert or to three comparable apartments. He can also justify a rent increase with the local rent index or the rent index of a comparable municipality. The tenancy law reform of September 1, 2001, added two more justifications, namely the qualified rent index and the rent database .

A qualified rent index is of particular importance. Although the landlord can choose another means of justification if a qualified rent index exists, he must refer to the data of the qualified rent index in the rent increase letter. According to the law, the qualified rent index has the presumption that it reflects the local comparative rent ( Section 558d Paragraph 3 BGB).

According to the BGH, a rent index does not need to be attached to the rent increase request. If the landlord has an expert report prepared with regard to the rent increase, he cannot impose these costs on the tenants.

Cap limit

A second limitation is the so-called cap limit. After this may according to § 558 para. 3 BGB, the rent increases within 3 years 20% of the existing before the rent increase inventory rent not exceed.

Since the tenancy law reform in 2013, the federal states have been able to limit the rent increase to 15% in areas that have to be specifically determined and in which the supply of the population with living space is critical (amendment of § 558 Paragraph 3 sentences 2 and 3 BGB) . Of this year have 2,014 Bavaria , Berlin , Brandenburg , Bremen , Hamburg , Hesse , North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein (abolished prematurely in December 2019), as well as since July 1, 2015 Baden-Wuerttemberg exercised.

In the case of rent increases based on an agreed tiered rent ( § 557a BGB) or index rent ( § 557b BGB), the restrictions of the local comparative rent and the cap limit do not apply.

A rent increase is only possible with the consent of the tenant. In order to check the justification of the rent increase, he has a period of reflection: the month in which he receives the request for the increase and the two following months ( § 558b BGB). The tenant can also terminate the tenancy in writing within this period with a further two months' notice. If the tenant cancels, the rent increase does not occur ( Section 561 (1) BGB). This special right of termination also applies to fixed-term rental agreements.

If the tenant does not terminate the contract, but also does not agree - or only partially - to the requested increase, the landlord then has three months to sue for the tenant's lack of consent ( Section 558b (2) BGB). Then the court has to decide whether the required consent to the rent increase had to be given. The court is not bound by the means of justification chosen by the landlord when determining the local rent. If the tenant pays the increased rent without reservation, this can be understood as tacit consent . If the request for increase is formally ineffective, for example because the landlord has not observed the one-year waiting period or the 15-month fixed period, the action is inadmissible.

Deadlines

  • Waiting period: 12 months after the last increase has become effective, a new request can be made.
  • Fixing period: New stipulation with an interval of 15 months from the last stipulation.
  • Consideration period: Tenant must only agree to the end of the 2nd month after receipt of the rent increase request.
  • Deadline for action: Until the end of the 5th month after the request was made, if the tenant did not respond at the same time.
  • Coming into effect: In the 3rd month after receiving the rent increase request.

modernization

The landlord can demand a surcharge on the net rent in the event of structural changes that, for example, increase the value of the home or bring about sustainable energy savings . A prerequisite is a written and explained calculation of how the rent increase is composed.

Publicly funded living space

Completely different regulations apply to a rent increase for publicly subsidized apartments (see in particular Section 10 Housing Binding Act - WoBindG). The principle of cost rent applies here (calculation of the rent per square meter based on a profitability calculation).

Importance in the valuation

The possibilities of rent adjustment determine the value of a property regardless of the valuation method used . If they correspond to the market value, they are included in the property interest rate. If they deviate from this, the effects are to be shown depending on the time limit of a deviation in the context of an income approach or to be taken into account as a discount in the derivation of the property interest rate.

Rent brake

On March 5, 2015, the German Bundestag passed the votes of the grand coalition ( CDU , CSU and SPD ), among other things, a regulation known colloquially as the rent brake , which should lead to a dampening of the rent increase in new lettings. For the first time since the end of the forced housing economy at the end of the 1960s , the legislature changed the rental price law by subjecting new rental contracts for apartments to special rental price restrictions.

See also

literature

  • Franz-Georg Rips (Ed.): Rent increase. Usual local comparative rent, approval procedure. Rent index, cap, annual lock-up period, graduated rent. More rent? Reasons, deadlines, examples. DMB - German Tenants' Association, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-933091-67-3 .
  • Franz-Georg Rips (ed.): Modernization by the landlord. Announcement, tolerance, rent increase, deadlines. Home improvement & energy saving. Tenant modernization. DMB - German Tenants' Association, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-933091-68-0 .
  • Alexandra Frank: The rent brake. An analysis of the legal provisions to limit the new and re-contract rent to 110% of the local comparative rent. tectum Verlag, Marburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-8288-3836-9 .

Web links

Wiktionary: rent increase  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 300 PERCENT RENT INCREASE ARE NOT USUROUS . In: Der Spiegel . No. 13 , 1966 ( online - Mar. 21, 1966 ).
  2. ↑ Rent increase and classification of the apartment taking into account the tenant's fixtures - LG Berlin, judgment of March 27, 2008, Az. 62 S 346/07.
  3. ↑ BGH, judgment of June 16, 2010, Az. VIII ZR 99/09, full text .
  4. ^ BGH, judgment of March 11, 2009, Az. VIII ZR 74/08, full text .
  5. ↑ Expert opinion on rent increases cannot be transferred to tenants. - Report from April 16, 2010 on free-urteile.de.
  6. ↑ BGH, judgment of November 4, 2015, Az. VIII ZR 217/14, full text .
  7. ↑ Michael Penquitt: Bye, rent brake! Are rents rising in Schleswig-Holstein now? In: Wohnglück.de. December 2, 2019, accessed June 9, 2020 .
  8. ↑ AG Munich , judgment of August 14, 2013, Az. 452 C 11426/13, full text .
  9. ↑ Tacit approval of the rent increase on rechtsindex.de.
  10. ↑ BGH, judgment of May 12, 2004, Az.VIII ZR 234/03, full text .
  11. ↑ Waiting periods for rent increases
  12. ↑ Grand coalition: Bundestag decides to limit rental prices. In: SPIEGEL ONLINE. Retrieved March 8, 2015 .
  13. ^ German Bundestag : Basic information about the process. In: Documentation and Information System for Parliamentary Processes (DIP). Retrieved March 8, 2015 .
  14. ↑ Ines Kristine Johnen: The Development of the Tenancy Law Adjustment Act - The draft development of the rejected 2. MietNovG-E via the BT-Drs. 19/4672 to the MietAnpG. Dr. Kovač, Hamburg 2020, p. 11.