Retention periods should be shortened and receipts for operating cost accounting should only be provided digitally – the Bundestag has passed the Fourth Bureaucracy Relief Act. This applies to tenants and landlords.
On September 26, 2024, the Bundestag passed the Fourth Bureaucracy Relief Act (BEG IV) in second and third readings. This includes, among other things, changes that affect tenancy law.
The sales tax retention period for copies of invoices, account statements, and payroll lists will also be shortened from ten to eight years.
Tenant: Text form if you object to termination
In the future, tenants should be able to object to termination in text form and request a continuation of the rental agreement due to hardship. The German Tenants’ Association (DMB) points this out. Previously, writing – i.e. a handwritten signature – was required. Once BEG IV has come into force, tenants should also be able to declare their objection to the termination in case of hardship by email or fax.
Rental contracts should also be able to be concluded digitally.
Landlord: Digital operating cost billing
In the future, landlords should be entitled to provide receipts for utility billing exclusively electronically. You are free to choose whether you present tenants with original paper receipts or electronic copies – such as scanned receipts. Whether landlords run a paperless office or continue to have originals will no longer matter in the future. Even if originals were still available, tenants can be referred to electronic receipts.
According to the DMB, tenants are then no longer entitled to view original analogue receipts. If landlords provide all receipts for billing electronically, the right of inspection is fulfilled and there is no longer any right of retention. The draft law does not provide that tenants can request that electronic documents be sent – for example by email. The DMB calls on the legislature to ensure that tenants have the right to receive receipts in electronic form and continue to have the right to inspect the original receipts at the landlord’s location.
Real estate industry: “The last bit of courage is still missing”
From the perspective of the real estate industry, the BEG IV plans are not yet such that “the big hit can be achieved,” explained Iris Schöberl, President of the Central Real Estate Committee (ZIA). “We see a mixed picture – there is still a lack of courage.”
The fact that operating cost bills can be provided digitally in the future will noticeably relieve the burden on landlords. “Here Germany is finally arriving in the 21st century,” said Schöberl. The shortening of retention periods for accounting documents in commercial and tax law provided for in the law is also progress, although even more relief would have been possible here.
According to the ZIA, there is no final legal clarity regarding the new text form requirement for commercial rental agreements because there is no comprehensive case law on this matter. “Abolishing the written form requirement for commercial rental agreements without replacement, as the Federal Ministry of Justice had planned in the draft bill, would be the right thing to do here. De-bureaucratization requires the strength to leave out some things,” said the ZIA President. There are clear, demanding rules for the written form.
BEG IV: Individual measures and legislative procedures
Individual measures by focus at a glance:
- Shortening of retention periods for accounting documents in commercial and tax law,
- Measures to promote digitalization,
- Reduction of reporting and information obligations,
- Projects to simplify and accelerate administration as well as
- further simplifications, especially the deletion of individual unnecessary regulations.
The Federal Government’s draft for a Bureaucracy Relief Act IV, as passed by the Bundestag, was previously significantly supplemented by the Legal Affairs Committee with an amendment proposed by the coalition factions.
Recommendation for a resolution passed by the Bundestag on a fourth law to relieve the burden on citizens, the economy and the administration from bureaucracy (Fourth Bureaucracy Relief Act, BEG IV)
Government draft of a fourth law to relieve the burden on citizens, the economy and the administration of bureaucracy (Fourth Bureaucracy Relief Act, BEG IV)
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