Everyone should fight back against excessive rents
E.K. from Berlin halved the rent.
In short: CONNY was a real help, because I had no time to deal with it myself. Everyone should fight back against excessive rents. If you don't do it for yourself, at least do it for the tenants who come after you. There is no risk either, because you don't pay anything if it doesn't succeed in the end.
What was your problem and how did you hear about us?
The rent was more than double what the rent index allowed. My landlord was not willing to settle.
It may surprise you, but I first heard about wenigermiete / CONNY at the tenants' association. When the lawyer there said they couldn't support me in court because I had only just become a member, I asked how else I could enforce my rights. He first advised me to apply for legal aid. Later he mentioned wenigermiete.de / conny.legal.
I was in the middle of my master's degree and had no time to deal with it properly, so I looked at wenigermiete.de / conny.legal. It wasn't long before I called you and then signed the contract with you.
What were your concerns before you hired us? Were you afraid of confronting your landlord, for example? What got you past your concerns, and what became of your fears?
I had serious concerns about confronting my landlord. Partly because I had, after all, agreed this tenancy agreement with him (pacta sunt servanda), and partly because I didn't know how he would react or whether he might try to get me out of the flat. Later I realised I had only signed the contract because I had no other choice, not of my own free will. Rent control is an interference with freedom of contract, but it is justified and it has a purpose. It would have lost that purpose if I had paid the inflated rent for 12 months and the next tenant then couldn't rely on rent control because of it. I gathered all my courage and challenged the rent with a clear conscience.
Are you paying too much rent too?
how much rent you could save.
How did the process go for you, and how much rent were you able to save?
The best part was that I didn't have to do anything. I just had to wait. In between, the wenigermiete / CONNY team emailed me questions about a few details, which I could answer by email with very little effort. In the end there was a settlement with the landlord. I “save” 390 euros a month.
What is your conclusion from your experience with us? What would you like to pass on to others in a similar situation?
Everyone should fight back against excessive rents. If you don't do it for yourself, at least do it for the tenants who come after you. There is no risk either, because you don't pay anything if it doesn't succeed in the end. You are also well protected legally against any steps the landlord might take, and you can get advice and representation on that too. So there is no reason not to try.