Period of personal needs: In these cases, tenants can object

An apartment is more than just a place to sleep. Here, at home, tenants know the neighbors in the supermarket, are in the sports club and know which restaurants deliver the best meal at the weekend. Children attend a school or a kindergarten nearby where they found friends.

If a termination then flutters into the mailbox due to personal needs, the despair is great: tenants have to give up their home, pay an expensive move and find a new place to stay. It’s not easy: Hundreds of thousands of apartments are missing in large cities – especially affordable. But sometimes tenants can defend themselves and stay in the beloved four walls. Because termination is not always lawful.

Landlords may register their own use if they want to use the apartment for themselves or close relatives. The latter include spouses, registered life partners, parents, grandparents, in -laws, children, stepchildren, siblings, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Entered partners or their children, household help or foster children who live in the landlord’s household can also be a reason for a termination. However, remote relatives such as uncle, aunts, cousins and cousins as well as divorced spouses and life partners are not under this regulation. If the apartment owners are legal entities – such as stock corporations or GmbHs – they must also not cancel on their own.

In the termination letter, the landlord must name exactly who he wants to register for his own use – otherwise the termination is ineffective. This can be a sentence like “My son Max Mustermann will move into the apartment with his boyfriend”. Then he has to justify why he needs this apartment. For example, permissible reasons are that the apartment is closer to the workplace or that the living conditions have changed, i.e. the landlord, for example because he wants to move in with a partner, needs a larger apartment. Financial losses, because the landlord’s current apartment is more expensive than its property, are a valid reason. However, using the apartment as a study or as a transition, while your own home is renovated does not count.

In addition, the landlord must note the statutory notice periods: With a rental period of up to five years, it is three months, between five and eight years six months and beyond nine months.

After the tenant moved out, the landlord must also put his announced plan into practice. So he cannot register for his mother and then let his brother move in. If he does not want to move in and want to rent the apartment instead, he must be able to justify this. Otherwise there is the accusation of the fake personal need in the room. Then the tenant who has been extracted can request compensation. As a rule, tenants are entitled to the difference between age and new rent.

People who experience a special form of burden also have the opportunity to contradict the termination due to social hardship. For example, if you are sick, pregnant or particularly old, the tenancy continues until the load no longer exists. In particularly old people, this can even be the end of their life. Logging difficulties of the children, an examination situation or financial difficulties can also justify social hardship. Even if tenants do not find a new apartment, this can be a reason for such a contradiction. However, this only applies as long as you do not find a reasonable comparison apartment, whereby “reasonable” is to be understood far. In metropolitan areas, the new residence can also be significantly smaller and more expensive.

Tenants must issue an objection at least two months before the tenancy ended. A court then commissioned an expert opinion and then determines whether there is social hardship in the specific case.

If tenants are unsure whether a termination is lawful or whether you should defend yourself with a contradiction due to social hardship, you can get help from a tenant association. Apart from that, there are numerous specialist lawyers who specialize in tenancy law and are a good option, especially with existing legal protection insurance.