Berlin – The red-red-green Senate is starting another attempt to cap the rents. Through a Federal Council initiative, the city government wants to ensure that the federal government enables the states to stop the rent increase by means of a so-called opening clause. A corresponding proposal is to be decided at the Senate meeting this Tuesday. Background: In a judgment of March 25, 2021, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that regulations on rent levels for unrestricted living space fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government – and thus declared the Berlin rent cap null and void.
With the advance on the Federal Council, the federal government is now to be called upon to present a “draft law to create a state opening clause”, which makes it possible, through state law, to deviate from the provisions of the social tenancy law of the German Civil Code (BGB) on tense housing markets, as in the resolution proposal is called.
Current tenancy law does not go far enough for the Senate
The rental price regulations in the BGB do not take sufficient account of the different situations on the local housing markets. The rent brake and the reduction in the room for maneuver to increase rent from 20 to 15 percent in three years would have “not or only slightly improved” the situation in the tense housing market. In many of these areas, the instruments available did not go far enough to achieve effective rental price caps.
However, social tenancy law must “effectively protect tenants on all housing markets from displacement due to rising rents and keep rents affordable”. It is therefore necessary “that an authorization is introduced through federal law that allows the states to deviate from the rental price regulations of the Civil Code if the housing market situation in individual areas requires this,” it continues. With a resolution dated June 3, 2021, the House of Representatives called on the Senate to start a corresponding Federal Council initiative.
Advance against illegal rental of holiday homes
With another Federal Council initiative, the Senate wants to act more sharply against the illegal rental of holiday apartments and vacancies, i.e. against the so-called misappropriation of living space. Data from foreign rental portals such as Airbnb, which are transmitted to Germany in accordance with the EU Administrative Assistance Act in tax matters, will in future also be used to prosecute the misappropriation. So far, the data that are subject to tax secrecy may only be used for tax purposes. The Federal Council initiative is intended to call on the federal government to advocate the use of data in the European Union to combat the misappropriation of living space.
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