Living in Berlin? Save money from November with the rent freeze!

The rent freeze imposes an absolute rent ceiling. The rent is "frozen" at the level of 18 June 2019. Existing tenants will also be able to reduce their rents from 23 November 2020. However, the law is legally controversial and we recommend that you invoke the rent control law.

The rent control was introduced nationwide on 1 June 2015 and regulates "in tight housing markets" the maximum rent a landlord is allowed to charge. CONNY has already successfully implemented the rent control a thousand times. This makes the rent control the court-approved and already successfully applied alternative to the rent freeze for Berlin tenants.

The vast majority of landlords react objectively to CONNY's letter. In many cases the clerks of the property management or real estate companies take care of the procedure. Some landlords also call in lawyers. This is good, because it usually professionalises the procedure.

Important: Since you are only asserting your rights, your landlord is not allowed to give you notice or put you under pressure in any other way. As long as the tenant complies with his obligations, the landlord has only one option to terminate the tenancy agreement: Own use. But even for this, there are major hurdles for the landlord. If you live in a rented flat that is rented out by a company, a termination due to personal use is already excluded, because only private landlords are allowed to register personal use. However, the requirements for this are very strict, which is why most private landlords cannot comply with them. Should you nevertheless receive a notice of termination (for own use), CONNY has a good chance to ward it off.

More than 99 percent of CONNY customers have not received a (threat of) termination of contract!

At CONNY you only pay if we are successful for you. There is therefore no cost risk. In the event of an out-of-court enforcement of the rent freeze, CONNY will receive a one-time success fee in the amount of the savings of five months (including VAT). The fee will be offset against your claim for repayment. Thus, the costs are paid by your landlord and usually not by yourself! However, you can also opt for the free legally valid letter from wenigermiete.de Verein für Mieterrechte e.V. and become active yourself. All you have to do is sign up for a free association membership. Beyond that, there are no further obligations for you.

1. New buildings. In Berlin, new buildings are considered to be flats and buildings that will be ready for occupancy from 2014.
2. Social housing and other publicly subsidised housing
3. Flats of the publicly funded housing construction and social hostels.

Yes, the input and evaluation of data by CONNY, including the calculation of possible savings potential, is free of charge for you. Afterwards you can decide whether you want to instruct CONNY to enforce your claim. If CONNY wins the case for you, a fee in the amount of the saved rent of four months will be retained. In most cases this is already covered by the repayment claim. So you only pay if you win the case!

Unfortunately there is no general answer to this question. What you can save more with always depends on the equipment and location of your flat. However, you can check and even apply both cases with CONNY. The rent freeze and the rent control are not mutually exclusive.

Update from 29 October 2020:

The Federal Constitutional Court has rejected an urgent motion against the rent freeze law. A Berlin landlord wanted to use his application to prevent the second stage of the rent freeze from coming into force. The Berlin rent freeze law thus cleared a hurdle. Furthermore, landlords must reduce excessively high rents from 23 November 2020.

Tenants should, however, be aware of this: The final decision by the Federal Constitutional Court on whether or not the rent freeze complies with the constitution is still pending and is not expected until 2021. Anyone who now saves monthly by using the rent freeze should put the difference aside until the final decision of the Federal Constitutional Court and not spend it. If the law is overturned, tenants may have to pay back the rent saved to their landlords.