Rent reduction for construction noise – how much is possible?

Under the Federal Immission Control Act (Bundes-Immissionsschutzgesetz), developers are required to keep construction noise as low as possible. In addition, an upper limit of 55 decibels applies in residential areas. In practice, however, things usually look different.

The following nuisances are typical construction noise:

• drilling and hammering noises
• chiselling work and vibrations
• building materials left in the courtyard or in front of the entrance door
• windows, balconies or stairwells increasingly soiled by dust and emissions
• reduced daylight in the apartment because the building is covered in scaffolding

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What is not construction noise?

It is not construction noise when your neighbour picks up a drill to put up a shelf. They merely have to comply with the house rules, which set out the quiet hours.

Rent reductions are only an option in the case of commercial construction noise.

A rent reduction comes into consideration if construction noise makes it impossible to use the rented property free of defects. It is irrelevant who exactly is causing the noise – the city, the landlord or a neighbour. If your quality of life and living is lastingly affected, you are entitled to a rent reduction.

If the building work consists of energy-efficiency refurbishment or modernisation measures, you will largely have to tolerate the noise, at least on weekdays and Saturdays between 7 am and 10 pm (§ 536 Abs. 1a BGB – German Civil Code). This is because such measures serve to preserve the building fabric, improve the quality of living or reduce energy consumption.

Nevertheless, the right to a rent reduction is not fundamentally excluded even if you have consented to the modernisation measures (LG Mannheim WuM 1986, 139). So it is always worth taking a second look at the small print.

Rent reductions for construction noise are also ruled out if you move into a newly developed area. In that case, you had to expect construction noise.

Rent reductions are excluded in cases where the landlord made it transparent when the tenancy agreement was signed that building work was imminent (OLG München WuM 1993, 607; LG Berlin GE 2003, 1330). In that case, you knew what you were getting into. But knowledge alone is not enough. If the nature and extent of the nuisance exceed what could be expected, rent reductions are still possible (LG Mannheim WuM 2000, 185).