Tenants are also allowed to partially sublet apartments that they do not use as their main residence. This was decided by the Federal Court of Justice. The lawsuit was filed by a man who only uses an apartment for work and sublets it for cost reasons.
Even if you do not use a rented apartment as your main residence, you are generally allowed to partially sublet it. This was decided by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe. Saving rental costs through subletting is a legitimate interest, according to the judges. For the right to sublet, it is not necessary that the apartment remains the center of the main tenant’s life after subletting.
Specifically, it was about a tenant from Berlin. He rented a three-room apartment in 2014, but later moved with his family into a rented semi-detached house on the outskirts of the city. He wanted to continue using the apartment for professional reasons and stay there two to three times a week to save himself the commute to work. He wanted to sublet two rooms for cost reasons. The landlord initially gave his consent for a limited period of time, but later no longer wanted to allow subletting. The tenant went to court because of this.
BGH refers the case back to the Berlin district court
The Berlin-Mitte district court ruled in favor of the tenant. However, he suffered defeat in his appeal before the Berlin regional court on the grounds that the apartment was only a secondary residence in the long term.
The BGH saw this differently than the regional court: subletting should be permitted if the tenant continues to partially use the apartment in addition to his legitimate interest. In the specific case of the dispute, there is a legitimate interest because the plaintiff wants to reduce his rent payments for economic reasons and he wants to continue using the additional apartment for professional reasons.
The regional court must now hear the case again. The aim is to find out whether the tenant actually continues to use the apartment for professional reasons.
File number: VIII ZR 88/22