As of: February 18, 2024, 8:02 a.m
By: Andrea Stettner
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It can be expensive for tenants if they lose their apartment keys.
This is shown by a case from Munich.
When such demands are justified – and when they are not.
Tenants have a duty of care regarding their apartment key, which they are given when signing the rental agreement.
Anyone who loses it negligently is liable for the resulting damage.
And that can cost a lot of money, as a case from Munich shows.
Key lost: Landlord demands 132,000 euros in damages
Tenants face high monetary demands from their landlord if they lose their apartment keys.
(Symbolic image) © Zoonar.com/Anna Derzhina/Imago
In this extreme case, the landlord of a Munich daycare center demanded a whopping 132,000 euros in compensation for replacing the locking system.
Bayerischer Rundfunk
(BR)
reported on this
in its program “Abendschau - The South” (broadcast on February 8, 2024).
According to BR
, even experts doubt whether this exorbitant demand can be enforced in court
.
But even in apartment buildings, tenants may have to dig deep into their pockets if the entire locking system has to be replaced.
According to the Munich homeowners association, between 2,000 and 5,000 euros can be due here.
When tenants do not have to pay the costs
However, tenants do not always have to be liable for the damage caused by a lost apartment key.
The prerequisite is that there is no risk of misuse due to the lost key.
If the key falls to the bottom of a river or into the sewer, is stolen or if the lost key cannot be assigned to an apartment or house, the tenant does not have to pay any compensation, the
Cologne Tenants' Association
informs on its website.
However, the tenant must also be able to prove this: “The tenant usually needs a witness to provide proof,” explains Rudolf Stürzer, chairman of
Haus und Grund München eV
in the
BR
TV report .
“The assertion alone is not enough.”
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Tenants can insure themselves against loss of keys
If you cannot prove that the lost key does not pose any danger, you should at least be well insured.
The
Munich Tenants Association
points out that there are special insurance policies that cover the costs in the event of damage.
Because liability insurance or household contents insurance does not pay automatically here.
Additional insurance can also make sense if the house is damaged by storms.
If you are unsure whether your personal liability will pay if you lose your keys and under what conditions, you should take a look at the insurance conditions.
In technical jargon, this is often referred to as “private foreign keys”.
Can the landlord actually keep a key in case of an emergency?
Tenancy lawyers have a clear answer to this.