The German constitutional court has declared a groundbreaking measure by the city of Berlin to counter rent increases, the rent ceiling, as illegal. The court ruled that the freeze on rents is not permitted, because it is an issue that has already been regulated nationally and is therefore contrary to the constitution.
The court’s judgment means a financial blow to an estimated 1.5 million Berlin tenants who now have to pay higher rents and may have to pay rent arrears.
In February last year, the rents in Berlin frozen at the level of the rental price of June the year before. At the same time, tenants could have their rent that was too high corrected with a simple check. For many Berliners this meant a rent reduction of hundreds of euros.
The left-wing administration of the German capital wanted to counter the sharp rise in rents. Between 2013 and 2019, prices for rental housing in Berlin increased by 27 percent.
Retroactivity
The law had many fans in Berlin, but according to the chief justices in Karlsruhe, the measure is incompatible with the national rental legislation. In 2015, the so-called Rent brake, the rental price brake, introduced nationally. This regulates, among other things, that the rent may not increase by more than 10 percent for new contracts. The constitution states that if measures are already in place at the federal level, the federal states are not allowed to pass a different law on them.
The landlords can now immediately increase the rent and also reclaim the underpaid rent retroactively. The union umbrella warns: “Especially now in times of corona, you simply cannot ask that of many tenants”, says Stefan Körzel.
After the decision became known, Berliners took to the streets to protest:
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