Verdict: Local court casts doubt on rent index

The Siegburg district court doubts the accuracy of the 2021 rent index in Troisdorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, and has instead set a different net comparative rent for an apartment with the help of an expert. In this case (case no. 123 C 60/21), a landlord wanted to increase the rent for his 78 square meter maisonette apartment from around EUR 560 (EUR 7.18 per square meter) to around EUR 644 (EUR 8.25 per square meter).

However, the tenants did not accept 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. It came to the conclusion that the data collection for the 2021 Troisdorf rent index may not be correct.

The reason given for this is that the comparative rent of the rent index is below the values of the rent index from 2014 and that rent increases of at least 10 percent were to be expected in the urban area. The local net comparative rent for the maisonette apartment was now instead put at EUR 622.50 per month (EUR 7.98 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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