Landlords must provide their tenants with clear rent increase declarations. They must also provide information on the use of third-party funds. This is the result of a ruling by the Federal Court of Justice (AZ: VIII ZR 416/21).
In this case, a landlord had sent a tenant a declaration of rent increase, but did not refer to the use of third-party funds. However, he had announced in advance that he intended to apply for funds from the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) for the implementation of various measures.
The tenant considered the declaration of rent increase to be formally invalid. He only paid his rent conditionally and then demanded a refund of the rent he felt he had paid too much. The case first ended up at the Berlin-Wedding district court and then at the Berlin regional court. The tenant was upheld by the BGH. One of the reasons for this was the lack of clarity in the rent increase declaration as to whether the landlord had received the third-party funds or not.
Source and further information: AZ: VIII ZR 416/21/juris.bundesgerichtshof.de
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