The Federal Supreme Court has finally decided and announced it on 15 April 2021: The Berlin rent cap is unconstitutional, as the state of Berlin has no legislative competence.
In this post you will find the recap of what the decision means for you as a Wunderflats lessor, if you have made adjustments to your rent due to the rent cap.
This article is particularly interesting for you if you have via Wunderflats
- added a shadow rent clause in your rental agreement or if you
- have waived part of the contractually agreed rent in an existing rental agreement.
First and most importantly:
- Rent reductions enforced due to the rent cap are invalid.
- You can now decide whether you want to claim the outstanding debts from your tenants or whether you want to waive them.
This is how other lessors operate:
Some property management companies have already expressed their opinion: While Deutsche Wohnen is asserting the claims against its tenants, the six state-owned housing companies or corporations such as Vonovia will abstain from them out of goodwill for the tenants.
How can you now act as a landlord?
You can claim the contractually fixed higher rent with immediate effect: From now on, the rent that was originally stated in the rental agreement must be paid by your tenants. Case law assures you a claim to the payments.
A new rental agreement is not required – your existing Wunderflats rental agreement already contains all the relevant information.
Do you want to assert your claims against your tenants?
Inform your tenants: We advise you to contact your tenants in writing (e.g. informally via email) to inform them of the current situation and the outstanding payments. Although your tenants are required to repay the amount directly on their own, we assume that only a few tenants are aware of this.
- Agree on the terms of repayment: Individually negotiate with your tenants how repayment is to be made – whether in a one-off payment or in fixed rates.
- You are entitled to this outstanding debt: The outstanding payments result from the difference between the rent paid and the original contractual rent or shadow rent, as well as the number of months rented via Wunderflats.
- Ideally, you should also inform your tenants about the contractual rent to be paid from May onwards. This way, tenants can, for example, increase their banker’s order.
Please note: The additional payment of the rent results in an adequate additional payment of the Wunderflats service flat-rate.
Would you like to abstain from your claims against your tenants?
Inform your tenants: We advise you to contact your tenants in writing (e.g. informally via email) to point out that you abstain from repayment. Ideally, you should also inform your tenants about the contractual rent to be paid from May onwards. This way, tenants can, for example, increase their banker’s order.
If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact our support team via service@wunderflats.com.
Please note: This article does not constitute legal advice – the information on this page has been prepared solely for your information. As we are not a law firm and act as a platform, we can and may share our estimations, but we cannot give you legal advice for your individual further proceedings.
