The process to rent or let a property

• Author: Pinkel, Tobias
• Pages: 40-45

Consum er mar ket stud y on the fun ctio ning of the r eal estate servi ces for consum ers in the EU – Coun try Fiche Germ any

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6. The process to rent or let a property

6.1 Main st eps in t he transaction process to rent and let a property

Ta ble 13: M ain step s of th e process t o r ent and le t a pr ope rt y

Ma in st ep s

Pr ocess i nvo lve d5 9

Fin din g a nd m at ching la ndl ord s and te na nts

In man y cases, th e land lord find s a t enant nei the r w ith th e help of a pr ofession al servi ce pr ovi der,

nor by usin g ad vert isem ents i n newsp apers and/ or t he i ntern et or by accep ting a n ew t enan t

sug gest ed b y t he for me r t enan t ( whi ch i s oft en the case, wh en t he form er t enan t want s t o leave

th e fl at w ith out r espect ing the notice peri od). Oth erwise, rea l est ate agents are invo lved.

I nf orm ati on sea rch by lan dlo rds or te nant s

( e.g . a bou t sala ry, ou tst andi ng de bts)

No sta ndard exi sts, in parti cular becau se m any lan dlor ds are pri vat e perso ns w ho o nly ren t o ut

less t han 10 or even ju st one f lat . Ty pical ly, t he f ollo wing inform ation are r equ ired :

• The “SCHUFA Au skun ft” about the persona l cre ditwort hiness i s alm ost always requ ired.

Schu fa Ho lding AG is an inf orm ation burea u col lecting in form ati on abou t f ailin g credits and

un paid bills. It cal culat es an in dex of persona l creditw ort hiness. Schu fa i ssues a n

infor mat ion sheet , w hich is desig ned to be giv en t o a land lord by th e tena nt and w hich only

contains t he i nfor mat ion necessary for th at purp ose. It costs 29, 95 € , w hich m ust be p aid

by the t enan t.

• Moreov er, the tenant no rmally has to subm it som e pr oof of his i ncom e.

• Finally, th e fut ure tenan t is al most al ways required t o fil l in a for m on t he d isclo sure of

confid enti al in form ati on concern ing his incom e and fina ncial situ ation.

• In add ition, a d eclaration by t he f orm er l andlord of the tenant is often requ ired , st atin g

th at no r ent debt s are l eft (Miet schuldenf reih eitsbesch einig ung) . Th is decl arat ion has

becom e m ore impor tan t in t he l ast year s. By now , in som e ci ties – such as B erlin – it is

very dif ficult to find a new flat wi thou t t his declar ation, wh ich t he new lan dlor d request s

fr om the tenan t. Ho wev er, accor ding to th e Fede ral Court of Just ice ( BGH) , t he f orm er

lan dlord is not legall y requi red t o issu e th is declaration. 60

I nspe ction of t he p rop ert y b y t en ant s ( in som e

cases w it h t he he lp o f pro fession als)

Inspect ion of the prop ert y by th e fu tur e tenan t w ith other profession als i s uncom mon.

59 Ex plain mo re p recise ly t o wh at exte nt each s tep is re levan t a nd h ow t he s tep is per for med

60 BGH, ju dgm ent of 30 Se pte mber 20 09, NJW 2 010 , 11 35-1 13 8.