The Siegburg Local Court doubted the accuracy of the 2021 rent index in Troisdorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, and instead determined a different net comparative rent for an apartment with the help of an expert. In the case in question (Ref. 123 C 60/21), a landlord wanted to raise the rent for his 78-square-meter maisonette apartment from around 560 euros (7.18 per square meter) to around 644 euros (8.25 euros per square meter).
The tenants, however, did not put up with this and instead referred to the rent index for the city of Troisdorf from 2021, according to which the comparative rent was only 7.36 euros per square meter. Accordingly, they would have had to pay a new monthly rent of around 574 euros at most. The case ultimately ended up before the Siegburg District Court. This concluded that the data collection for the Troisdorf rent index 2021 may not be correct.
The reason given for this is that the comparative rent in the rent index is lower than the values in the rent index from 2014 and that rent increases of at least 10 percent were to be expected in the urban area. Instead, the local net comparable rent for the maisonette was now put at 622.50 euros per month (7.98 euros per square meter) by an expert on the basis of comparable apartments and the rent index. The ruling is not yet legally binding.
Source: ag-siegburg.nrw.de/Az. 123 C 60/21
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