“Personal use”: landlord terminates a mother with a disabled daughter to sell the house at a higher price
FOCUS was the first to report on this case: a landlady wanted to throw a divorced mother of three out of her home right after Christmas – because “vacant” properties fetch higher prices on the property market. CONNY has now seen to it that the termination was defeated. Before that, however, the landlady tried a truly nasty trick – she stole the mother's original tenancy agreement.
Ms Schulte* had moved from Hamburg to Schneverdingen to live with her partner only a few months earlier and had no idea what lay ahead. At the time, it seemed as if a dream had come true. Both of her sons found apprenticeships right in the neighbourhood. Her six-year-old daughter was given a kindergarten place. That is far from a matter of course, because her daughter was born prematurely. Complications after the birth mean she still has learning difficulties today. Ms Schulte even had to give up her job, because with care level 2 (Pflegegrad 2) her daughter needs intensive care – around the clock. When a kindergarten in the next village offered her daughter an inclusive place, the relief was enormous.
Then the shock: the mother receives a letter by registered post. In it, she is told to leave the house. 30 December, shortly after Christmas, is proposed as the handover date.
"Under § 573 Abs. 1 BGB (German Civil Code, section 573 para. 1), I must demonstrate a legitimate interest in terminating the tenancy: termination on grounds of personal use, as (...) the house is to be put up for sale. The tenancy therefore ends on 31 December 2018. (...) I propose 30 December 2019 as the handover date. (...) If the property is not handed over on time, I will be forced to file an eviction suit."
“At first we simply accepted the termination. It sounded as if the letter had been written by lawyers. And they threatened us straight away with court and eviction. We didn't want to risk that and started looking for a new flat,” says Ms Schulte.
The mother looked for flats nearby, because she didn't want to put her children through yet another fresh start. Anywhere else, she would never have found a kindergarten place and apprenticeships for her children so quickly.
“Every day we were on the phone and viewing flats. Nothing worked out. We could already see ourselves out on the street after Christmas. It was simply a nightmare. We didn't want to put ourselves through the whole circus any more and even thought about emigrating,” Ms Schulte recalls.
How Ms Schulte found CONNY
The relationship between Ms Schulte and her landlady, who lived right next door, was understandably ruined: “We were at daggers drawn and no longer even looked at each other.”
Because the search was so hopeless, the mother started searching online to see whether something could be done about the landlady after all: “I had a friend who had been through something similar. And she said that with children they weren't allowed to throw me out. I googled what you can do about a termination and quickly ended up on your website.”
The mother was sceptical at first and called customer service three times in three days: “They explained to me that a termination on grounds of personal use is invalid if it is done for the purpose of selling the property.” Personal use can only be claimed if the owner or a relative is actually going to move into the property – not because the owner wants to sell it at a higher price. Vacant properties quickly push up the price on the property market by twenty to thirty per cent.
Picture: Ms Schulte with her son
After the lawyer instructed by CONNY rejected the termination in writing, the landlady tried to strip the mother of her rights by underhand means
“One day she was standing at my door claiming that she herself had never had a copy of the tenancy agreement with my signature on it. So I fetched my copy, took a photo of it with my phone and gave her the agreement to photocopy. She was supposed to give the document back to me afterwards.”
But that never happened. Instead, the mother now had to fear that she would no longer be able to produce an original document should the case go to court: “It was an unimaginative pretext to get the original agreement off me. I should never have given her the tenancy agreement. She never intended to give it back to me,” Ms Schulte says.
Then the surprising twist
In two separate letters, the landlady complied with the demand made by the wenigermiete.de lawyer and withdrew the termination. “Christmas was saved,” says Ms Schulte.