Dispute before the German Federal Supreme court: tenant complaints due to cosmetic repairs

Who needs paper, painting, whitewashing – the tenant or the landlord? The so-called cosmetic repairs frequently make the Trouble. A frequent dispute in the Federal court of justice (BGH) is defined in two cases out of Berlin.

In principle, the law obliges the landlord to keep the apartment in good shape. In the lease the cosmetic repairs may not be transferred to the lessee, and make the vast majority of landlords use. The clauses, however, are not always permitted. For example, the Supreme court in 2015, has decided that tenants who receive a nonrenovated housing, do not have to renovate at their own expense. Otherwise, you would have to give the apartment in the worst case, a beautiful back, as you have taken yourself.

In Karlsruhe, it now goes to two such cases. The tenants have taken over their apartment, respectively, many years ago, unrenovated. The renovation clause in the lease, you can therefore ignore. However, they are no longer with the condition of the apartments, in the meantime, happy. You want to enforce that the landlord must be active. The question is whether he is obliged to do so.

This was also at the Berlin district court is disputed. In the one case, the judge did not see the landlord of the obligation – the tenant had accepted the unrenovated condition of the apartment when you move in. In the second case, another chamber decided that the landlord needs to renovate. He had imposed on his tenants ‘ illegal renovations and had to hold it.

Both judgments are not yet final. The basic clarification is now the task of the Supreme civil judge of the Supreme court, negotiate on Wednesday both cases. Whether it is the same in the afternoon, a judgment is open. (Az. VIII ZR 163/18, etc.)