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. From the landlord's point of view, the tenants were also to remove the total of 126 dowel holes.
Since the tenants refused to comply with the demand, the landlord hired a painter to do the work. He deducted the costs from the rent deposit. The tenants did not agree to this and brought an action before the Mettmann Local Court (AG). But the district court ruled that the tenants were liable for damages. According to the AG, they should have left the rented apartment in a condition where only normal cosmetic repairs would have been necessary when they moved out.
According to the court ruling, this was not the case. According to the ruling, the dowel holes represent an intrusion into the substance of the building. The number of dowel holes is irrelevant. According to the court decision, tenants are always obligated to seal them properly when moving out, even if this is not an atypical user behavior. The latex paint should also have been painted over when the tenant moved out. The tenants appealed, but the Wuppertal Regional Court also rejected the claim.
Source: LG Wuppertal
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