November 2020

Ruling: Costs for cutting wood are not operating costs for tenants

While landlords can pass on garden maintenance activities to tenants as operating costs, this is not the case with tree felling. This is because planting and maintaining plants, trimming hedges or lawn care are recurring activities that are part of the care of the common property. Tree felling, on the other hand, is a one-time activity that, due to...

Tip: niches as storage space and decorative element

Niches and unused spaces in the apartment or house can serve as storage wonders with a little skill and imagination. With the right lighting or bright colors, rooms can also be visually enlarged and decoratively embellished. Whether the niches are dead corners on the stairs that can be converted into a small home office or small...

Market Report: Residential Investment 2019/2020

According to the "Residential Investment - Residential and Commercial Properties at a Glance" by real estate service provider Colliers International, residential properties are very popular with investors on the German real estate market. With a transaction volume of around €181 billion, residential real estate is recording higher turnover figures in 2019 than in the previous year. This includes a transaction volume of 58...

Tip: properly paint baseboards

If you want to renovate your home and paint the walls or change the wallpaper, you should also paint the baseboards. This way, small defects can be repaired directly, such as dents or scratches. With a little diligence and manual skill, the painting work can also be carried out on your own without any problems. But before you start painting, you should check the...

Research project: EnergyTWIN

In building planning, not only the location or the architecture plays an important role, but also the technical equipment of the building or the planning and routing of power and water lines. Nowadays, construction projects and building design are planned in Building Information Modeling (BIM). But no matter how good the digital building design may be, reality often leaves unimagined...

Judgment: Tenant liable for damages after moving out

After moving out of a rented apartment in Wuppertal, the tenants were obliged to close dowel holes and paint the apartment walls, according to the Wuppertal Regional Court (AZ 9 S 18/20). After the tenants had moved out, the landlord of the apartment demanded that the walls, which had been painted over with latex paint, be returned to their original condition. Also the total of 126...

Advantages and disadvantages of night storage heating

Tenants and owners who have night storage heating in their home should take care to operate it properly. A night storage heater is powered by electricity. It absorbs electricity during the night and converts it into thermal energy to release the heat into the rooms the following day. This is done by using the heaters, which are located deep in the...

Study: The East German Housing Market after Reunification

According to the study "The East German Housing Market after Reunification" by the German Institute for Economic Research, rents in eastern Germany have converged with those in western Germany over the past 30 years. Thus, a high increase in rental costs can be observed in eastern German cities. According to survey results, despite the rising gross cold rent, tenants are more...

Tip: What to do when property developer insolvency threatens

Many home buyers decide to work with a developer. The advantage for buyers here is that both the construction work and the completion of the house as well as the rights to the land come from a single source via the developer. The developers must make advance payments for the construction work as well as for the acquisition of the developer's land. To realize this, take...

Study: Why home office is good for the climate

The study "Working after Corona - Why home office is good for the climate" commissioned by Greenpeace shows how many CO2 emissions could be saved if the trend of home office continues after the Corona pandemic. The sudden development in the field of mobile working and digitalization has shown the impact that flexible working structures have on the environment....

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