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Märkisches Viertel in Berlin: Only extreme exceptional cases are considered defects
Photo: Karl-Heinz Sprembe / CHROMORANGE / IMAGO
In large parts of Germany, the population is groaning under the heat wave.
This can also be a problem for tenants.
However, even an overheated top floor apartment is usually not a lack of rent, as the German Tenants' Association emphasizes on the current occasion.
Which rights and obligations apply in apartments:
In principle, heat is not a deficiency
There are no general legal regulations on maximum temperature limits in living spaces that tenants could refer to.
At most, individual contractual agreements that apply in certain constellations would be conceivable.
Otherwise, heat per se is not a rental deficiency.
According to the tenants' association, it can only be checked in individual cases whether the conditions are so extreme that contractual use of the rooms is no longer possible or whether there is a structural defect in the house.
General statements are difficult, even in extreme cases
According to the association, apartment temperatures around 30 degrees for days, even with reasonable countermeasures, can be indications of an improper condition.
In that case, a rent reduction might also be an option.
But as I said: It is always only the very concrete individual case that is decisive.
Accordingly, district courts came to different assessments in the case of heavily heated attic apartments.
In a case from Hamburg, which involved a high-priced and well-equipped new apartment, a court saw a rent reduction of 20 percent as justified.
In another case from Leipzig, on the other hand, according to the tenants' association, the court came to the conclusion that the tenant could expect a rise in temperature when renting his apartment and therefore had to accept summer indoor temperatures of 30 degrees.
No entitlement to certain protective measures
Tenants can only request heat protection measures from landlords if there is actually a defect.
Even in these cases, however, the owner decides what antidotes he deems appropriate.
For example, users cannot request the installation of an air conditioning system if their landlord only wants to leave it at roller blinds.
Incidentally, tenants may only make changes on their own that do not interfere with the substance of the building.
Even the attachment of external blinds, awnings or awnings to the facade represents such an intervention and should be approved in advance.
If necessary, such extensions must also be dismantled when moving out.
On the other hand, clamp blinds or protective films that do not damage window frames are unproblematic.
mike/AFP