German rent calculator finds 146.000+ cases of exploitation in just 1 year

Around 146.700 tenants who have used die Linke’s rent calculator in the past year found that they were paying illegally high rent. The party is set to propose a Rent Gouging Law in the Bundestag.

One year since die Linke launched rent calculator

It has been one year since die Linke launched its online rent calculator. Renters in Germany can use the free calculator to find out if their landlord is charging illegally high rent.

To mark the date, the German political party has released figures about how many people have used the calculator and what results they found. In the first year, 220.000 tenants across Germany used the “Mietwucher” and around two-thirds found they were being overcharged.

Among the tenants who found they were paying too much, half found that they were paying 50 percent over the maximum local comparative rent set by the rent index (Mietspiegel). 

The Mietspiegel was introduced by the CDU-led grand coalition in 2015. Under the law, if a landlord changes a tenant more than 10 percent over the Mietspiegel limit, the tenant is entitled to a rent reduction and refund of any overcharged rent they have already paid.

Landlords in Germany who charge 20 percent over the Mietspiegel limit can face fines of up to 50.000 euros, and those who charge 50 percent over the limit may be committing a criminal offence and can face prison time.

Since die Linke launched the calculator, 7.500 tenants who found they were being overcharged reported their case to local housing authorities. If all of these cases are punished, affected tenants could save an average of 250 euros per month.

Die Linke to present draft law on illegal rents in Bundestag

“[The rent calculator] revealed the extent of illegal rents in Germany that even we did not anticipate,” die Linke Bundestag member Caren Lay told AFP. Now, the party is to present a draft law on exorbitant rent in the Bundestag on November 6.

The so-called Mietwuchergesetz (Rent Gouging Law) will propose fines of up to 100.000 euros for landlords who overcharge tenants. However, the party is unlikely to receive support from the CDU/CSU-SPD governing coalition.

In October, the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district of Berlin was the first district to fine a landlord for charging their tenant exorbitant rent. The landlord was charging her tenant 190 percent over the Mietspiegel limit for a 38 square metre flat. She was ordered to pay a 26.253,50 euro fine, and the tenant was given the opportunity to sue for a 22.264,08 euro refund on the rent she had overpaid.