Paid too much rent? This start-up will give you your money back

AndThaddäus Leutzendorff actually wanted to study business administration in Vienna. But after two years, the 26-year-old dropped out. Sitting in the courtroom wasn’t his kind. He preferred to devote his time to his own projects, like working in start-ups like this one Foodora food delivery servicewhere he worked as a sales manager.

But Leutzendorff probably experienced the most formative period, as he tells in an interview with “Gründerszene”, during his work in Mietfuchs. The Austrian start-up helps tenants get a refund for their overpaid rent.

There he learned that in Vienna many people live in apartments in old buildings, who transfer more money to their owners every month than allowed by the tenancy law. And so in 2020 she decided to copy the idea of ​​her previous employer and founded her own start-up with fairesLeben.

He wanted to do some things differently and, among other things, promote the theme of digitization. According to this, Mietfuchs freelancers went door to door with paper and contracts to make acquisitions, for example. And customer service, according to the founder’s indictment, could also have been improved.

According to the founder, customers of faireMiete, on the other hand, should be able to keep in touch with the start-up via their platform, for example to quickly know the current status of their legal proceedings. “We are dealing with people who live in completely dilapidated apartments and pay an average of 150 to 250 euros more per month,” says Leutzendorff.

All this happens under the faireMiete brand. The start-up pays all legal fees for its clients, even if the lawsuit ultimately fails. Several thousand euros quickly add up for additional lawyers and relationships. “If we are successful in court, we get 30 percent of what the client gets in total,” says Leutzendorff. With a refund of 5,000 euros, for example, 1,500 euros will turn up for the Viennese start-up.

Sales just wait until the end of the process

According to the young founder, faireMiete receives around 25 requests per month, mainly from people with a migratory background. “People who don’t speak German very well tend to shy away from going to a lawyer. We therefore take care of complete communication with the lawyer. ”

In advance, i.e. before the case gets to the lawyer, employees first check inquiries for the chances of success and resolve them if the chances of success are low. “Our goal is to make a good profit from the cases won so that we can compensate for the cost of the lost cases.”

So far the Viennese start-up has not been in black. The reason for this is that the young company funds cases in advance and often the sales end up in the account only after the process is over, that is, a year or two later.

This can become a problem, especially when the disputed amounts are in the millions, as recently, according to Leutzendorff. The solution: “Then we will team up with another litigation financier and collect the sum together.”

So far, around half a million euro has been earmarked for pre-financing court cases, mainly through the funds Leutzendorff has raised in previous funding rounds.

This includes, among other things, a low six-figure amount in the seed round at the start of the foundation. Earlier this year, half a million euros is followed by existing investor KK Incube Invest and a Swiss business angel.

fair rent is commercial area only

Much of it went not only in the judicial cases of the tenants. The company also deals with legal disputes in the field of illegal gambling. Because faireMiete is just one of several business areas that Leutzendorff has established since it was founded in 2020, fairesSpiel is another.

“Our focus is illegal gambling. This is a gigantic market. “According to this, Austrians waste between 200 and 400 million euros a year on illegal gambling, as he says. It is your fault, you may think. However, if you lose your money in a casino that is not licensed in Austria, you can recover lost money.

However, going to a lawyer is complicated and expensive. That’s why Leutzendorff wants to help those affected, who often suffer from gambling addiction, with reimbursement and legal costs – and, as with faireMiete, earn money if they succeed.

read also

High prices of electricity and gas

“Our average client lost between 20,000 and 30,000 euros.” If the client wins the case, Leutzendorff quickly earns several thousand euros in large amounts.

fairesLeben also offers the refund service in Germany, because the same is true here: online casinos that do not have a license in Germany are illegal. Good business for Leutzendorff: according to the founder, he receives more than 1,000 inquiries every month. Of its approximately 20 employees, approximately eight are engaged exclusively in illegal gambling.

But business is also a risk. It strongly depends on the legal decisions in Austria and Germany. Leutzendorff: “For example, tomorrow there may be a new ruling stating that Austria will issue gaming licenses to all online casinos. Then the topic is dead for us.”

Start-ups also campaigns against hate posts

And maybe that’s why the founder relies on several horses like hate posts on the internet and data abuse. In both cases, the affected individuals are entitled to compensation, for example if digital companies lose data due to data leaks and end customers suffer damage such as spam calls.

“People rarely think about going to a lawyer and suing Internet companies like Facebook for damages,” says the founder. “There are rules on what’s allowed and what’s not allowed on the Internet.”

And so Leutzendorff wants to use the two brands fairesNetz and faireDaten to help those affected defend themselves within the legal framework, “so that perpetrators don’t get away with it,” he says.

Compared to gambling, this area is not that profitable. Leutzendorff personally considers the subject important. “Too many people get hateful messages every day on social media,” said the founder.

Just a few weeks ago, an incident in Austria made headlines beyond national borders. A doctor took his own life after months of threats from coronavirus deniers on social media.

“All About Stocks” is the daily snapshot of WELT’s corporate editorial staff. Every morning from 7 am with the financial journalists of WELT. For stock market experts and beginners. Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple podcast, Amazon Music And Deezer. Or directly from RSS Feed.