Conny GmbH (formerly Lexfox GmbH) advertises tenant mandates with the website kleineermiete.de. In terms of content, it is usually about expressing rent complaints to landlords, thereby reducing the monthly net rent and dividing the "profit". This is free of charge for the tenant, unless the landlord includes him in the process (so-called third party counterclaim, for this purpose AG Tempelhof-Kreuzberg, Az .: 3 C 2/18, judgment of 23.01.2019 in real estate 2019, 737 ). For Conny GmbH, the business is apparently highly profitable because it is largely automated. The letters of complaint as well as the further correspondence, the complaints and almost everything that we see from there is standardized. The individual details of the various issues are filled in using tables in attachments or placeholders. It is not always clear to us to what extent a lawyer looks at it there.
structurally incorrect calculation in the letter of complaint
Whether and with what content Conny GmbH declares a rental price complaint essentially depends on a machine valuation. Accordingly, it is decisive how the algorithm is set there, ie with which specifications it works. In practice, we find that the complaints of Conny GmbH are usually incorrectly calculated because they do not meet the requirements of the Berlin rent index 2019. We have repeatedly pointed this out in various letters and processes. Nevertheless, Conny GmbH does not change its algorithms, so that incorrectly calculated complaints continue to be received.
What exactly is wrong with that?
In section 4 paragraph 6 of the official explanations on Berlin rent index 2019 (to be found on page 9 of the linked pdf, right column, second paragraph):
“Each value of the range” is also the upper value. This means that it is not necessary to classify it in the ranges of the rent index. You can use the upper value of the rent index field and add 10% to the limit of the § 556d para. 1 BGB to determine. That makes a huge difference. The mean value in the old building, middle residential area, mean apartment size 60-90 sqm, is 6,77 euros / sqm, the upper value is 10,00 euros / sqm. The lower value is even 4,84 euros / sqm. So it is sometimes more than double the amount. Conny GmbH lets the tenants fill out the range classification and its algorithm informs the landlords, whom he writes to, that the local comparative rent has this or that value. According to the above operating instructions for the rental index, this is incorrect.
Is that really what you mean? Why do you attach the upper value to new rentals?
The rent index consists of two parts:
Rent changes in the last 4 (future 6) years and
New contracts in the last 4 (future 6) years
Rent changes in the last 4 (future 6) years
Rent changes in the inventory are limited to 15% every 3 years. There are still numerous contracts in Berlin from the 80s that were never raised (until the rental price brake was introduced). In some cases, gross rents of EUR 3,50 are paid here. That is then 2,50 euros or something similar. If this is increased in a maximally permissible way, 15% = 0,53 euros. You could raise the 3,50 euros to 4,03 euros and then have to wait 3 years - even if the usual local rent is 8 euros. In the rent index statistics, the 3,03 euros net are included (with 1 euros in ancillary costs). The rent index then acts as if these 3,03 euros were part of the local comparative rent. The rents below the average usually represent. Old contracts, which in the last 4 years due to rent increases Civil Code § 558 have been raised, but are limited to 15% in 3 years. Among other things, the values include extremely low starting amounts, which are still extremely low even after a 15% increase. They therefore only represent part of the customary local level for existing contracts. In the case of existing contracts, rent changes are dependent not only on inflation and the general development of the rental market, but also on the condition of the house: if it continues to deteriorate, a rent increase is less comprehensible than with the same or unchanged improving condition.
New contracts
New contracts, however, usually represent. the top 20% of the rent index range. With new contracts, the condition of the house plays almost no role, apart from extremes. Decisive are the district, the size and layout of the apartment, the state of renovation, how light or dark it is in the apartment and, as a luxury element, perhaps the presence of a balcony, which one can also do without if one cannot find such an apartment. Everything else usually plays a role in new rentals. not matter. The age of the contract is therefore many times more relevant for the actual rent than the equipment criteria of the range classification. This means that the local comparative rent for the submarket "new letting" is completely different from the local comparative rent for the submarket "existing contracts".
both submarkets in one rent index
A rent index, which combines two completely different submarkets and forms averages from them, does not meet scientific standards as defined by the principles of statistics. § 558d para. 1 BGB. Therefore, he would be responsible for determining the permissible rents § 556d para. 1 BGB totally unsuitable. This, in turn, dogmatically has the consequence that the State of Berlin would actually have to draw up two rent indexes, one for the existing contracts and one for the new rentals of the last 4 (in future 6) years. That would double the effort and would also have consequences in terms of the numbers that are politically undesirable. Against this background, the instruction contained in number 4 paragraph 6 of the official explanations on the rent index is a compromise: a common rent index for both sub-markets remains, but new rentals can be linked to the upper value, regardless of any range classification. This simulates that a separate rent index for new contracts would show at least the upper values on average, since the data records of the rent index 2017 and 2019 were arbitrarily capped by 25% for political reasons (Section 4, Paragraph 5):
Significant values above the upper values now shown therefore do not appear in the official table. Otherwise, there would otherwise be significantly higher connection amounts for new leases in individual cases. That was also not politically desirable.
further errors of the complaint letter
Conny GmbH's complaint letter also requests a whole range of information, as well as subsequent automated reminders asking for reimbursement of extrajudicial costs. The former is common, the latter basically unfounded:
An action for information
Due to the demand for information, a lack of legal protection is not permitted if the landlord focuses on the rent index instead of an exception, LG Berlin 64 S 95/19 (GE 2020, 672) with reference to LG Berlin 67 S 282/17 (GE 2018, 196). If the landlord sets a higher previous rent, he does not have to provide information about modernizations, and so on.
A right to reimbursement of extrajudicial legal costs
does not exist. Because Conny GmbH works free of charge for the tenants in whose name it declares the complaint. Instead of an RVG fee, she agrees to only receive a fee in the event of success, calculated as a share of the rental savings. If it does not bring about any rent savings out of court, no fee claims have arisen against the tenants, with the result that they have no costs. The assignment of a claim in the amount of zero euros does not lead to an increase in the same. Apart from that, the LG Berlin decided that there is no entitlement to reimbursement of pre-judicial costs, also for legal reasons, LG Berlin 64 S 94/19, reasons for the decision number 5 (GE 2020, 674 right column).
Result
If you receive a complaint from Conny GmbH, it is worthwhile to have it checked by a lawyer and to defend yourself against it. Very often errors are included (there are others besides those discussed above). A rent reduction permanently reduces the earnings value of your property and thus also the market value when it is sold. As a result, the damage to the owner is much greater than the tenant's profit from his rent savings. We'll help you with that. And if it does not succeed in individual cases and the rental becomes uneconomical for you, we can advise potential buyers on the possibilities of terminating their own needs and then take them over when the time comes.Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, or Shiba Inu: your support for my work on this blog
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“Each value of the range” is also the upper value. This means that it is not necessary to classify it in the ranges of the rent index. You can use the upper value of the rent index field and add 10% to the limit of the § 556d para. 1 BGB to determine. That makes a huge difference. The mean value in the old building, middle residential area, mean apartment size 60-90 sqm, is 6,77 euros / sqm, the upper value is 10,00 euros / sqm. The lower value is even 4,84 euros / sqm. So it is sometimes more than double the amount. Conny GmbH lets the tenants fill out the range classification and its algorithm informs the landlords, whom he writes to, that the local comparative rent has this or that value. According to the above operating instructions for the rental index, this is incorrect.
Significant values above the upper values now shown therefore do not appear in the official table. Otherwise, there would otherwise be significantly higher connection amounts for new leases in individual cases. That was also not politically desirable.
