If a tenant has to carry out cosmetic repairs according to the rental agreement, these do not have to be perfectly executed. This is the conclusion of the Berlin Regional Court (Ref.: 65 S 264/20). In the case in question, a landlady claimed damages from a former tenant. With her repainting of the walls and ceilings, she had led to a "worsening" of the previously professional paint job.
In this context, the landlady (plaintiff) criticized, among other things, a "shady, non-covering paint on the walls and ceilings in both rooms, in the hallway, in the bathroom and in the kitchen". She therefore demanded a sum of 1,354.03 euros from her former tenant. Unjustly, as the Berlin Regional Court found.
On the one hand, several witnesses credibly testified to having carried out the work. On the other hand, the "professional execution of cosmetic repairs [...] is not to be equated with execution in specialist craftsman quality". According to a ruling of the Federal Court of Justice, tenants are allowed to carry out the cosmetic repairs assigned to them (at low cost) themselves.
Source: Berlin Regional Court (Ref.: 65 S 264/20)
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