What's the Miete Here?
Five tips for renting an apartment in Berlin
In my last post, I wrote about buying an apartment in Berlin. But, just like the rest of Germany, most people here rent.
(In German: the verb to rent is mieten; noun = Miete.)
Renting here is very different than renting an apartment or house in the United States. Tenants have more legal protections. Once you are in an apartment, it’s very hard to be evicted. And there are limits to how often, and by how much, the rent can increase.
I have even heard other Americans comparing a standard apartment contract to owning a condo back in the States.
Unfortunately, the tight housing market right now is fueling sort of a semi-hidden secondary rental market of sublets and short-term leases that may not be subject to the same rules. And some unscrupulous landlords also try to take advantage of newcomers’ lack of knowledge to charge higher rent or agree to other terms that aren’t allowed under the law.
Here are my top five things to consider, if you are new to Berlin and looking for a place to live.
Renting a furnished apartment
For most people, it takes a really long time to find an apartment in Berlin. I have heard estimates ranging from six months to a year.
It took us four months to find our current place, but I am counting one month that the kids and dogs and I were still in the States and my husband was here in a serviced apartment. And, we are renting in the higher rental range for Berlin.
It’s not feasible to try to rent your permanent place from abroad. For one thing, you need to be available to go to apartment viewings in person, as well as submit a rental application with proof of an established bank account, SCHUFA score, and proof of employment.
In short, you need to already be living in Berlin to find a place to live in Berlin.
Enter: The short-term, furnished rental.
We lived in one when we first moved. It allowed us to register as Berlin residents (Anmeldung), as well as a place to live while were apartment hunting.
I recommend going through an established company like Homelike or Wunderflats. (Nicolas, at All About Berlin, compiled this great list of short-term rental agencies.)
Often you will pay your deposit to them, which they hold until you move into the apartment, then you pay the remaining rent to the landlord. This ensures that everything is on the up-and-up with the apartment and the lease. Unfortunately, there are a lot of scams out there. I’ll cover that in the “red flags” section below.
You could also rent a serviced apartment, like a long-term hotel for business travelers.
The downside is that furnished apartments and short-term rentals are not subject to the same limits on rents that normal apartments are. We paid three times our current monthly rent for a smaller apartment when we were in the furnished apartment.
And some of the landlords are sketchy. Some are people subletting their own apartment without the owner’s permission, and refusing to give their tenants the Wohnungsgeberbestätigung (the landlord’s confirmation of residence), which is a problem if you need to register to obtain a visa and residence permit.
If you go through a service like Homelike or Wunderflats, always check to make sure that it states that Anmeldung is possible - basically that registering at that address is allowed.
In some cases, people really only need the apartment for a short period, like a long business trip or vacation. Then, registering isn’t necessary. And, it is pretty common in Berlin for tenants to sublet their places when they travel - even for a few weeks.
But some people are subletting their places long term, when they are living elsewhere, and want to stay registered at that address themselves. With the increase in rents, there’s a lot of incentive for people who have old rent contracts to keep them, and then sublet their place at the current market rate.
This technically against the law - as you are supposed to de-register (abmelden) when you leave an address. Usually this is taken care of when you go to register at your new address somewhere in Germany. But if you move outside of Germany, obviously this doesn’t happen.
And some tenants are also subletting the place without the property owner knowing, so they don’t want to give the rental confirmation. (Property owners are notified when someone registers at their flat.)
Even in the above-board legal short-term rentals, many new Berliners are getting stuck in these supposedly “temporary” contracts for a year or more, because it’s so difficult to find an regular apartment.
This leaves them in a really vulnerable position, in which they are subject to much higher rents to start, as well as large rent increases, and eviction at the end of a lease term - which they would not have to worry about if they were on a standard rental contract.
When you find a place
The ins and outs of finding and renting an apartment could be an article all on their own. Again, Nicolas Bouliane’s website, All About Berlin, has an excellent guide to finding and renting an apartment in Berlin. He explains the Kaution and what the Nebenkosten is and how it is calculated.
He also wrote a great section about common rental scams and how to avoid them. (Also what to do if you get scammed: For example, if your landlord asked for some kind of bribe or extra payment to give you the apartment over another applicant - you can report them and get your money back and still keep the apartment.)
There’s now a service - for a fee, of course - that will scan all the online apartment listings for you and send in requests for a viewing on your behalf. Get the Flat costs €82 a month and offers to check all available apartment listings all day long and submit immediate, personalized requests for viewings.
We did ImmoScout’s MieterPlus+ when we were knew here, which allowed us to see new listings earlier, as well as upload our rental application information (SCHUFA statement, proof of employment, etc.) to easily submit to landlords. That is €12.99 a month.
One thing I don’t see mentioned as much - the handover protocol (Übergabeprotokoll). This is a document that lists the condition of all rooms of the apartment - specifically lists any defects - and is signed by both parties. This can be important when you move out so that the landlord doesn’t try to deduct money the deposit for damages you didn’t cause. Do this - just in case. My husband took photos of some small dents in the flooring, in case they are brought up in the future.
The landlord should hand over all keys to the apartment. They are not allowed to access it without your permission while you live there. By law, they are only allowed to request to “inspect” it for specific reasons and to both give you notice of when they want to inspect it and arrange to do so at a time that is convenient to you.
Joining a tenants’ association
Once you have found an apartment, signed the lease and move in, you should consider joining a local tenants’ association, like the Berliner Mieterverein, Berlin Mieterhilfe or the Berliner Mieterschutzbund.
The tenants’ associations can help represent you in the event of any dispute between you and your landlord. For example, if you think a rent increase is beyond the scope of what is allowed, or if you want to fight the landlord’s termination of the lease contract, you can get legal advice and representation from the tenant’s association.
Annual or monthly fees vary by association. Membership in the Berliner Mieterverein, for example, costs €9.50 per month, plus a €7.50 joining fee.
If you think your rent exceeds what is allowed under Berlin’s rent control laws, you can also consult with Conny, a commission-based service that tenants can use to try to get their rent reduced. Their fee is six times the amount of monthly rent reduction they negotiate.
If they are not able to ret your rent reduced, then you pay nothing. If they sue your landlord to reduce the rent and obtain a judgment for repayment of the amount that was charged over what was the legally allowed amount, Conny will take their fee from the repayment.
Personally, I think it is a better idea to join a tenant’s association and ask for their help pursuing a rent reduction. They don’t charge the high commission. And, they can help with other issues besides just the rent.
However, they do usually only offer help and information in German. And the tenant still needs to do the legwork of filling out forms and pursuing the legal case. With Conny, I have heard that they take care of that.
When something doesn’t work
German landlords are required by law to maintain the dwellings they rent out, performing any needed repairs in a timely fashion.
If something breaks or malfunctions or is damaged that affects the livability of the apartment, the tenant is allowed to reduce or withhold their rent until the problem is fixed. However, you can’t just decide to reduce the amount you pay. You have to give written notice of the problem to the landlord and establish a reasonable time frame to allow repairs.
If the landlord doesn’t respond or refuses to do the requested repairs, you can send them a notice that you will be reducing the rent in compliance with the relevant section of the German Civil Code.1
Bad neighbors?
In any situation where several unrelated people live in the same building - there are bound to be conflicts. Someone leaves their bike blocking the hallway, someone likes to turn up their stereo right when your kid goes to sleep at night, etc.
Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how loud you like your techno), German rental agreements come with a (sometimes minutely detailed) set of “house rules” that govern everyone living in the building.
I posted the photo below to my Instagram stories just after moving in. Apparently, people parking their bicycles in the room set aside to store baby prams (“buggies”) was a problem for a minute. Thus, a prohibition made it into our building’s Hausordung.
Even beyond the house rules, Germany has nationwide quiet hours and days, known as Ruhezeit. These are actually part of the national German Basic Law, though how stringently enforced varies greatly by jurisdiction. Multiple people have told me that Berliners have zero regard for “nachtruhe” (the weeknight quiet hours). But, officially it’s a law. Which means, you can officially call the police (really, the Ordnungsamt) if someone violates it.
This really should be a last resort. Your neighbor catching a hefty fine is not a good way to keep the peace and, obviously, they know where you live. Also, most Ordnungsamter here are understaffed and overworked. They are unlikely to respond to minor beefs between neighbors.
Your first step should be to try to work it out with the neighbor in question - starting with Berlin’s favorite way of dealing with interpersonal conflict - the passive aggressive anonymous note.
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedThis note to a neighbor, shared on the Instagram account @notesofBerlin, begins with the salutation: “To the Shoe Thief.”
If that doesn’t work, try to go talk to them and work something out - either alone or, preferably, with an equally irritated neighbor or two. If they still keep breaking the rules (or the law), then keep a written log of the times they are in violation.
This log, along with copies of any written communication (non-anonymous!) that you have sent, should go to your landlord or house manager. If they ignore you, then you can go to the Ordnungsamt and/or get advice from tenant’s association (see above) about what to do next.
But what if you’re the ‘bad neighbor?’
A common experience I have heard about (though, thankfully, not directly experienced), are aggressive neighbors who weaponize the house rules and harass new tenants. Repeated noise complaints about tenants in the apartment above walking too loudly, or letting their kids run around, etc.
It’s important to know there are exceptions to the Ruhezeit and that it does not, for example, prohibit reasonable noise that is at “room level” or noise made by children. People are allowed the normal use of their living space.
Some altbau are very old and the sound does carry. But your neighbor cannot demand that you don’t use your alarm clock because they have sensitive hearing and it disturbs them, for example, or that you only run your washing machine on weekdays. (Buildings that have this in their house rules have lost court challenges.) Some things are just part of apartment living.
I have found, also, that sometimes people will complain about a rule you are allegedly breaking as a way to forestall a complaint by you about rules they break. For example, a friend of mine was getting constant noise complaints from her upstairs neighbor about her child running inside the apartment - not even during quiet hours - just in general.
It turns out, these neighbors would also get up early every morning and do aerobics - jumping up and down on the floor - well before the end of the quiet hours. A German friend of ours pointed at that a) children’s noise is exempt from the rules - restricting them is seen as harmful to their development; and b) they were making a unreasonable complaint to put the friend on the defensive so she wouldn’t complain about them making noise too early.
In that situation, know what the rules are, what your rights in terms of your living space are, and don’t back down.
It’s often worth it to reach some sort of compromise with neighbors who are genuinely disturbed by noise that you have to make. If the walls are thin and they can hear every word of your phone conversation. Or, you have a crying baby. Yes, the law is on your side. But, to keep the peace, you might try offering some kind of solution (put a rug in the baby’s room or buy them earplugs, talk on the phone in a different room).
If they are just complaining to see how far they can push you around, that’s a different story.
More Info
For more guidance on finding and renting an apartment in Berlin, check out these other articles.