Associations: German tenant association with a new president

The German Tenants’ Association has a new boss. On the 71st German Tenant Day in Rostock-Warnemünde, the around 400 delegates elected the previous federal director of the association, Melanie Weber-Moritz (51), the full-time president, as the association announced. She follows Lukas Siebenkotten, who is retiring. The German Tenants’ Association is the umbrella organization of 15 state associations, in which more than 300 local tenant associations are organized. According to their own statements, around 1.25 million households are members, which corresponds to about three million tenants.

“It is a great honor and joy to me as the first woman who full-time this function is to be the new president of the German Tenants’ Association,” said Weber-Moritz, according to the message. She wanted to work to make rents again affordable for all tenants in Germany, regardless of income, place of residence, origin, gender, social status or marital status. “Because living is a human right and not speculative good,” emphasized the new tenant association boss.

The outgoing association president had warned on Wednesday that the apartment rents could become poverty trap for many. “Households pay between 30 and 40 percent of their income, 3.1 million households even pay more than 40 percent of their income for rent,” said Siebenkotten. At the same time, he welcomed the extension of the rental price brake to new rentals.

This regulation limits rental prices in new contracts in regions with a tense housing market. Wherever it applies, rents may not be more than ten percent above the local comparison rent when a new contract is concluded. However, there are exceptions such as new buildings that were rented for the first time after 2014 and extensively modernized apartments.