Is the rent too high? Did the landlord not comply with the rental price brake? In order to check this, tenants have a right to information. The BGH clarified today when the claim expires.
The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) was concerned today with four Berlin apartments that are located in particularly popular areas. A rental price brake therefore applies in these quarters. This means that if an apartment is re-let, the landlord may add a maximum of ten percent to the local comparative rent. He may only demand more in exceptional cases, for example if the apartment has been renovated.
In all four cases, the tenants felt they had to pay too much rent. They therefore asked their landlords to repay what they felt was too much rent. The landlords refused. They referred to the fact that in their case there were exceptions to the rental price brake. When the tenants asked for the relevant information, the landlords refused. The claims for information are time-barred.
Period of three years from the request
According to the legal regulations, a tenant can first of all demand that his landlord provide him with certain information – in order to be able to check whether the landlord can actually invoke exceptions to the rental price brake, says Kai Hamdorf, press judge of the BGH: “About for Previous rent. Or with regard to the question of whether there have been modernization measures. In other words: what are the possible reasons why the rent is higher than the local comparative rent.”
However, it was disputed whether the right to information would become statute-barred at some point – and if so, when. The courts in the lower instances had previously assessed this differently. The Federal Court of Justice has now clarified this as a supreme court: As long as a tenant does not request information from the landlord, his right to information does not become statute-barred.
Only when he asks the landlord to do so does a period of three years run, according to BGH press judge Kai Hamdorf: “The limitation period of three years begins to run at the moment when the tenant requests information from the landlord. That means: the request must go to the landlord. That’s when she starts to walk.”
Tenants don’t have forever to complain
In concrete terms, this means that if the landlord does not provide any information, the tenant has three years to sue for the information.
What is important, however, is that the judgment of the Federal Court of Justice does not mean that tenants can now take forever to sue the landlord. After all, as a tenant, you want to get back the overpaid rent. And that is only possible if you complain to the landlord at the latest two and a half years after the start of the rental period that the rent was too high. After these two and a half years, you can no longer claim back rent that has already been paid. You can then only complain for the future.
File number: VIII ZR 375/21 and others