When you receive a letter from your landlord announcing a rent increase, it can be quite a shock. If you want to be sure that you won’t be paying too much money in the future, there are several places you can go for information. In addition, according to Stiftung Warentest, the tenant must agree to the increase.
For example, the city of Tübingen provides information on its homepage about the requirements (https://www.tuebingen.de/26317.html). According to this, the landlord may only raise the rent by 15 percent within three years. This is because a cap applies in Tübingen in view of the already expensive rents – in many other cities, an increase of 20 percent is possible. Anyone who wants to know whether their rent is within the usual range can find out from the Tübingen rent index (https://www.tuebingen.de/verwaltung/verfahren#mietspiegel). Since 2015, the Mietpreisbremse (rent brake) has also applied to new rental agreements: the rent may not be more than 10 percent above the local comparative rent. According to the Tenants’ Association, at least 12 months must have passed since the last increase.
However, the cap does not apply if the landlord justifies his increase with modernization measures. For example, if the building has new balconies, an elevator or new windows, the landlord can add up to eight percent of the costs of modernization to the rent. In most cases, however, the rent may not increase by more than three euros per square meter.
The situation is also different if it is not the rent itself that is increased, but the advance payments for the ancillary costs. This can hardly be avoided in view of sharply rising prices for gas, electricity, oil and even wood.
Anyone who has doubts can ask the landlord. You can also contact a lawyer—but that costs money. Tenants’ associations also offer advice. But you have to be a member and pay an annual fee:
https://www.mieterbund-rt-tue.de/mitgliedschaftsmitgliedschaft
tun23020601
Hochhäuser auf dem WHO in Tübingen. Foto: tünews INTERNATIONAL / Mostafa Elyasian.
001880
