The city of Berlin has launched a new hotline, which tenants can call to find out whether they are paying illegally high rent and how to challenge their landlord.
Tenants in Berlin can now call a hotline run by local authorities and receive advice about what to do if they believe they are paying too much rent, according to a press release from the Berlin Senate for City Development, Building and Living (SenStadt).
Ahead of the call, tenants should check if their rent complies with Berlin's online rent index (Mietspiegel). By phone, advisors can confirm whether their rent amount complies and, if not, give further information about how to seek a rent reduction.
Tenants can reach the hotline on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 9am and 12pm, and Tuesdays and Thursdays between 2pm and 5pm. In-person consultations are also held at Mieterberatung in Prenzlauer Berg or Asum GmbH in Friedrichshain.
"Nobody paying exorbitant rent should fall through the net of advice services offered in Berlin," Sandra Obermeyer of SiWo, a department of the SenStadt, said in a press release.
If you think you’re paying too much rent, you can call the Berlin hotline on 030 213 007 302.
Germany’s Mietspiegel rent index law was introduced by the CDU government in 2015 and rules that rents cannot be more than 10 percent over the standard comparable rent for new contracts in areas with a “strained housing market”.
Despite the existing law, Conny - a company which helps tenants secure rent reductions if they find they are being charged illegally high amounts - estimated that 75 percent of Berlin tenants are paying too much each month.
Multiple tenants' associations continue to criticise the current Mietspiegel law for having too many loopholes. Tenants across Germany may be unlikely to enforce their entitlement to lower rent for fear of being evicted or may be subletters who don’t have the authority to request a rent reduction.
Criticisms have also come from the CDU. In November 2024, Berlin mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) called on the German government to regulate rents more strictly at the federal level. “I would like to see a cap on rent increases introduced nationwide,” Wegner told Tagesspiegel, “The situation is not so bad with existing rentals, but many people have difficulty paying asking rents for new builds in [Berlin]”.
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