Can shoes simply be placed in front of the apartment door?

Created: 01/13/2022, 3:54 PM

From: Franziska Kaindl

Some tenants sometimes leave their shoes in front of the apartment door.

© dpa / Boris Roessler

After a walk through snow and rain, some tenants prefer to leave their shoes in front of the apartment door.

But is that even allowed?

Wet shoes leave annoying puddles of water and stains in the apartment, which can be easily avoided - by letting the feet dry on the doormat * in front of the apartment door.

But this does not always meet with approval from the neighbors.

They can perceive the footwear as annoying or even dangerous, as it could become a trip hazard.

Indeed, such cases have already been tried in court.

But with what result?

Shoes may temporarily be placed in front of the apartment door

Under certain circumstances, shoes can be placed in front of the apartment door, as the Hamm Higher Regional Court ruled in 1988 (AZ 15 W 168 - 169/88) - if it only happens

.

The district court of Lünen (AZ 22 II 264/00) decided in a similar way, according to which house rules may not prohibit the short-term parking of shoes in the stairwell.

Also read

The stairwell is considered a communal area: rules must be observed

In general, however, tenants have no right to park their shoes in the stairwell or even on the landing, as these are communal areas. In particular, according to tenancy law, shoes do not have to be tossed in front of the apartment door permanently - for example, if footwear is stacked in the hallway or a shoe rack is set up. In an emergency, this can block the

. If someone trips over the shoes, the affected tenant can be held liable as the culprit. But also "for fire protection reasons, shoes in the hallway are a problem", as Susanne Niehues-Ungethüm, legal advisor at the tenant protection association, explains according to

.

Also interesting

However, the Cologne District Court (AZ 222 C 426/00) has decided on an exception: According to this, a small shoe cabinet in the stairwell may be permitted if no escape and rescue routes are blocked and the landlord knows about it and tolerates it.

It can also be handled differently with

, as the owners cannot be expected to drag these aids to the upper floors, says Niehues-Ungethüm: “In isolated cases, objects such as prams, rollators or wheelchairs can be in the hallway leave if the spatial conditions permit and nobody is hindered. ”The objects must not be chained, however, so that they can be pushed aside in an emergency.