Renting and tenant rules: articles

What the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch and the Bundesgerichtshof say about painting, cosmetic repairs and handing a rented flat back in Germany.

The Renting and tenant rules section explains what German tenancy law expects from a tenant who paints, decorates or hands back a rented flat. The articles quote the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (BGB, the civil code) by section number and the Bundesgerichtshof (BGH, the federal court of justice) by case number and date, because the rules on cosmetic repairs (Schönheitsreparaturen) come almost entirely from case law rather than from statute. Each article separates three situations: a flat handed over renovated, a flat handed over unrenovated and a lease with an invalid clause. The figures for painting costs come from dated German price guides so that a tenant can compare a landlord's claim with the market rate.