Berlin rent freeze overturned - Recover high back payments!
The Berlin rent freeze has been declared null and void. However, Berlin tenants still have a chance to protect themselves from additional payments.
Reprimand your landlord as soon as possible with a qualified letter of reprimand in order to be able to reclaim a large back payment.
"I never thought
CONNY could
actually cut my
rent in half! "
By acting quickly, high additional payments can be reclaimed!
Lawyers recommend that affected tenants immediately complain to the landlord about the excessive rent with a qualified letter of reprimand in accordance with the court-confirmed rent control law. This must be done before the landlord asks them to make an additional payment. After this complaint, however, tenants should then pay the additional payment owed under the tenancy agreement with reservation in order not to risk termination.
What should you do now?
- Immediately reprimand your landlord in writing: It is important that you reprimand your landlord with a qualified letter of reprimand before you receive a demand for back rent from him.
- Make the demanded back payment conditionally: After you have sent the reprimand, you must make the demanded back payment conditionally.
- Your rent will be checked: The written reprimand sets in motion a process that will review your original rent and determine the actual reasonable rent.
- Claiming a refund of the back rent: If it was determined that your rent was too high, you can claim back the overpaid back rent.
CONNY supports you with a quick reprimand, thus preventing the loss of your rent cap savings and takes over the enforcement of a permanent rent reduction. Do not lose valuable time.
Daniel Halmer, CEO CONNY
"The rent freeze has now been declared null and void by the Federal Constitutional Court. Thanks to the rent control, which has been confirmed by the court, Berlin tenants still have the chance to take action against excessively high rents. Berlin tenants can thus save an average of 287€."
Update on the Berlin rent freeze: What should tenants know?
The Berlin rent freeze was declared unconstitutional by the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe on April 15, 2021. Thus, the concerns of many experts were confirmed and tenants are threatened with high additional payments. This decision hits Berlin tenants hard, but there is with the constitutionally approved rent control for a large part of those affected a solution to reduce their rent. So check now with CONNY how much rent you can save each month.
- The rent control applies in Berlin to almost all rental agreements concluded since June 1, 2015.
- If the rent for your apartment in Berlin exceeds the local comparative rent plus 10 percent, you can pull the rent control.
- Quick action is required: the rent control only applies to tenants with a rental start date between June 1, 2015 and March 31, 2020 from the time you ask your landlord to reduce the rent. For rental agreements concluded on or after April 1, 2020, a retroactive rent reduction is possible as a result of the rent control.
The amount of savings with the rent control varies from the old rent freeze savings depending on the case. However, your savings potential as a tenant by means of the rent control is legally secure and sustainable. CONNY has already been able to advocate for a fair rent in thousands of cases and will also help you.
What makes CONNY special
Calculate free of charge and without obligation how you can reduce your back rent payment
You decide whether you want to commission CONNY with the rent brake
You only pay if we are successful and if the rent freeze is overturned
Simple and reliable
CONNY's intelligent and automated system allows rental law experts to comprehensively evaluate your input based on the law, current rulings and other price factors.
What distinguishes CONNY?
We are experienced IT and legal experts who have already successfully enforced the rent control for thousands of tenants. The principle applies: You only pay if we have been successful for you.
In addition, we offer you the following advantages:
Convenient: We take care of the entire process with your landlord; we file applications, set deadlines, send reminders, request and review evidence, and fund contract attorneys if court hearings are necessary. All you have to do is commission us and you will get updates on your case, be asked if you want to accept settlement offers or continue with the process, and be told the outcome at the end. There's no easier way to have your rights enforced.
No cost risk & active help: You only pay a success provision if the rent freeze is overturned. In this case, we receive five times the savings that we were able to enforce for you with the rent control. If we are not successful for you, you will not incur any costs. So if the rent freeze holds up in the Federal Constitutional Court, you pay nothing to CONNY. And unlike other consulting associations, we become active for you and enforce your claims.
High success rate: Due to our thousands of successful cases and our automated processes, the experience of all cases flows into your case and we can proceed very efficiently. Since we often proceed against the same companies, the willingness of the other side to settle increases with every case we win for our clients.
Identify savings potential
You fill out the rent control calculator free of charge & without obligation and find out directly how high your savings potential is. Afterwards, you can decide whether you want to commission CONNY with the enforcement of the rent control.
Commission CONNY
CONNY takes over the entire communication with your landlord and enforces your claim. As a rule, we can come to an out-of-court agreement. If your landlord is not willing to negotiate, the lawyers of the CONNY law firm will go to court for you. CONNY will pay the lawyer's fees and court costs.
Pay less rent
From now on, you only pay the rent that is in line with the rent control.
A commission is only due if we have successfully enforced your claim.
FAQ
The 3 most important points about the law:
Rent cap: the rent cap sets by law how high the rent can be for new rentals.
Rent freeze: The rent freeze "freezes" rents at the June 18, 2019 level. Landlords are therefore not allowed to increase rents for 5 years.
Rent reduction: In Berlin, rents may not exceed the permissible rent cap by more than 20 percent. The law takes effect from November 2020 and also applies to old contracts.
The rent freeze is currently being reviewed by the Federal Constitutional Court to determine whether it is constitutional. There is therefore legal uncertainty. If the rent cap is found to be unconstitutional, tenants could face high repayment demands from landlords.
Update 15.04.2021
The rent cap was declared null and void by the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe. It is therefore invalid.
The Rent Control is a law to dampen the increase in rents on tight housing markets (§ 556d BGB). It was introduced nationwide in 2015 and is now effective in most federal states. The Rent Control applies in many large cities such as Berlin, Hamburg, Munich or Frankfurt and allows tenants to reduce their rent if it is more than ten percent above the local comparable rent. This makes it currently the most powerful weapon against excessive rents, which is why every tenant should know about it and use it.
In principle, it's quite simple: When renting a new flat, the landlord may not charge an excessive rent. A maximum of 10% above the local comparative rent is allowed. If you have to pay more, you can also demand a reduction in rent during the current tenancy and reclaim the overpaid rent from that point on. But the devil is in the details: The tenant must activate the Rent Control by means of a so-called qualified letter of reprimand, otherwise the landlord can simply keep the excess rent received. The qualified letter of reprimand must meet a number of legal requirements and specifically derive from the local rent index why the rent is excessive. However, if you hire CONNY, you do not have to worry about this: We will take over the letter of reprimand for you. The landlord can also try to invoke various exceptions to the Rent Control.
Update 15.04.2021
The rent cap was declared null and void by the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe. It is therefore invalid.
Yes, if an out-of-court settlement cannot be reached and we consider judicial enforcement to be promising, our partner lawyers will also take legal action in court. CONNY will cover the costs of the proceedings. The commission for CONNY is only due in case of success. Should we not be successful, you will not have any costs; thus you have no cost risk.