City leaders and tenant representatives are concerned about a ruling by the Federal Administrative Court. They see an important instrument of tenant protection in danger: the municipal right of first refusal. The court ruled in the last instance that the right of first refusal exercised by a Berlin district office in an area with a milieu protection statute was not lawful. According to the judgment, a right of first refusal is excluded if a plot of land is developed in accordance with a development plan or the objectives of the respective urban development measure and the building has “no deficiencies or defects”.
The head of the Munich tenants’ association, Volker Rastätter, translates the judgment on the basis of a press release from the court as follows: “The municipalities are only allowed to exercise their right of first refusal, even in the preservation statute area, if the property is junk where no or hardly any tenants live . ” It no longer matters whether residents should be displaced.
In Munich, since 2010, the city has exercised the right of first refusal in conservation statute areas in 65 cases and bought the respective houses. In this way, tenants in more than 6,500 apartments were protected from excessive rent increases and displacement. The protection also applies if a buyer avoids the pre-purchase by committing himself to act in a comparatively tenant-friendly manner.
Lord Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) emphasized the importance of maintenance statutes and the right of first refusal: These are “central tenant protection instruments” for the municipality. “If, after a corresponding legal examination of the written justification, the judgment actually has an impact on Munich, I will try my best to fight with the new federal government for even more effective tenant protection legislation.”
SPD parliamentary group leader Christian Müller is also concerned: The municipal options for action in terms of tenant protection “must not be curtailed”. The tenants’ association is becoming more specific: the federal legislature must “take immediate action and reform the building law”. Christian Stupka, spokesman for the Munich initiative for a social land law, is also alarmed: “A legal clarification is required in the building code.