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The Written Rules of an Apartment Building

The Hausordnung, the house rules, settles the recurring questions of living together in a German apartment building. According to the German Tenants’ Association, it typically covers quiet hours, cleaning the stairwell, clearing snow, and where walkers, prams and bicycles may stand. It binds tenants when it is clearly part of the lease. A notice that only hangs in the hallway creates no obligations of its own. A landlord can answer repeated breaches with a formal warning and, in serious cases, possibly with termination without notice.

Where the apartments belong to several owners, their decisions are written down too. For every resolution since 1 July 2007, the property manager must keep a Beschluss-Sammlung, a collection of resolutions. Each entry is made without delay, numbered and dated, and every owner may inspect it. A question that was decided years ago stays decided, and anyone can look it up.

Building Rights for Ninety-Nine Years

In Germany, a house can be built on land that belongs to someone else, under an Erbbaurecht, a hereditary building right. The law on it dates from 1919 and sets no fixed term. In practice, building rights commonly run for 70, 80 or 99 years. Commercial ones often run for 30 years, with options to extend. Building rights without any end exist, but they are very rare. They are granted in special cases, for example by foundations or churches.

Required in Every Car and Every Home

Every car in Germany must carry a warning triangle and a first aid kit, and since 1 July 2014 a safety vest as well. Since a change in the rules in 2015, every applicant for a driver’s license must complete a first aid course of at least nine teaching units of 45 minutes. Smoke detectors are also required by law. Rhineland-Palatinate required them in new buildings from 2003, earlier than any other state. Today the duty applies in all 16 states. The last deadline for fitting them in existing homes ended in Saxony on 31 December 2023.

The Local Comparative Rent

German rent law measures rents against a derived figure, the ortsübliche Vergleichsmiete, the local comparative rent. Section 558 of the Civil Code defines it. It is formed from the usual rents agreed or changed in the last six years for housing of comparable type, size, equipment, condition and location. Towns with more than 50,000 inhabitants must publish a rent index, a Mietspiegel. A qualified rent index must be prepared according to recognized scientific principles. In areas with a tight housing market, the rent for a new lease may exceed the local comparative rent by no more than 10 percent. This Mietpreisbremse, the rent brake, may apply until the end of 2029. A landlord who exploits a shortage to charge more than 20 percent above the comparative rent commits an administrative offense. The fine can reach 50,000 euros.

Two Weeks With the Draft

A German who buys an apartment from a developer signs the contract in front of a notary. The Notarization Act, the Beurkundungsgesetz, sets a waiting period before that appointment. The consumer should have ausreichend Gelegenheit …, sich vorab mit dem Gegenstand der Beurkundung auseinanderzusetzen, enough opportunity to study the deed in advance. The notary should send the draft to the consumer. Dies soll im Regelfall zwei Wochen vor der Beurkundung erfolgen. As a rule, this should happen two weeks before the notarization. If the period is shorter, the notary should write the reasons into the deed. The rule is a response to the so-called Mitternachtsnotare, midnight notaries. These notaries worked inside the sales networks of property agents. A sales agent called a potential buyer and praised an apartment. At the next meeting, the agent took the buyer to the notary to sign. Since October 2013 the notary must send the draft himself.

The Handover Record

When Germans move into or out of a rented apartment, tenant and landlord usually walk through it together, room by room. They record defects, meter readings and the keys handed over in an Übergabeprotokoll, a handover record, and both sign it. The law does not require it. Once it is signed, it binds. According to the homeowners’ association Haus & Grund in Frankfurt, a record signed by both sides that shows no defects counts as a negatives Schuldanerkenntnis, a negative acknowledgment of debt. The tenant can no longer claim that old damage existed at the handover. In a case reported by the insurer ARAG, a landlady later claimed damage from her tenant’s heavy smoking and kept the deposit. The local court of Leonberg held her to the record both had signed at move-out, which showed no damage.

Three Weeks for Apartment Owners

Owners of apartments in a German building meet at least once a year to decide on repairs, costs and rules. The invitation should reach them at least three weeks before the meeting, unless the matter is especially urgent. Under the Condominium Act, a resolution is valid only if its subject was named in the invitation. A typical agenda item therefore reads Beschluss über die Sanierung der Fassade, resolution on the renovation of the facade, not a vague heading such as Allgemeine Überlegungen, general considerations.

A Rent Increase Needs Reasons

A landlord who wants to raise the rent to the local level must give reasons. Section 558a of the Civil Code says the request must be made to the tenant in text form and must be justified. The law names the usual kinds of evidence. Among them are the local rent index, the Mietspiegel, a rent database, a reasoned opinion by a publicly appointed and sworn expert, and the rents of comparable flats. For the last, naming three flats is enough. A landlord who ends a lease because of his own legitimate interest must also state the reasons in the letter. Other reasons count only if they arose later.

A House Sold on a Handshake

In Germany, a contract to sell a piece of land must be recorded by a notary. The Civil Code says so in § 311b. A sale agreed on a handshake, or in a letter signed by both sides, is void, however clearly both of them wanted it. The general rule is § 125: Ein Rechtsgeschäft, welches der durch Gesetz vorgeschriebenen Form ermangelt, ist nichtig. A legal transaction that lacks the form prescribed by law is void. The law offers one way back. The contract becomes valid after all once the transfer has been declared and entered in the land register.

Airing the Room

The German way to air a room is Stoßlüften, burst airing. All windows are opened wide for a few minutes, and if possible windows on opposite sides at once. The Federal Environment Agency publishes the method. Its poster for schools says three to five minutes in winter and ten to twenty minutes in summer. In October 2020, for schools during the pandemic, it gave a rule: Alle 20 Minuten fünf Minuten lüften. Air for five minutes every 20 minutes. To air, all windows should be opened wide. A tilted window is not enough.