In the case at hand, the tenant of an apartment in an apartment building demanded that her landlord repair the defects in the telephone line and pay for the repair work. The residential property located on the first floor is equipped with a telephone connection, the line of which is connected to the house connection through a crawl space.
The tenancy has existed since 2011. In 2015, the tenant discovered a defect in the telephone line. According to the telephone provider, this was due to damage to the cable, which had to be replaced by an intact one. In order to be able to make phone calls and use the Internet, the tenant independently and provisionally laid a telephone cable, which led through a tilted window from the apartment to the house connection in the basement. However, the landlord still refused to commission the repair work and have the telephone cable replaced.
In the ruling, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH, AZ VIII ZR 17/18) decided that the landlord must repair the defective telephone line. According to Section 535 (1) Sentence 2 of the German Civil Code (BGB), a landlord is not only obliged to hand over the rented apartment in a condition suitable for the purpose of the contract, but also to maintain it in precisely this condition during the rental period. Since the apartment is equipped with a telephone socket, it can be assumed that an intact telephone connection is part of the contractual condition and that the tenant can use it.
Source: BGH
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