Repairs in the apartment: What rights and obligations tenants and landlords have – Schramberg and the surrounding area

The oven in the kitchen is broken, the water in the shower is not draining properly in the bathroom, black mold stains suddenly appear on the walls: problems of this kind can arise quickly and at the most inopportune times. As a tenant, you have the right to a quick repair. But what is the legal situation if the landlord is trying to find a tradesman, but he has been waiting for months?

Tenants must report defects immediately

Lawyer and specialist lawyer Stefan Haller from the law firm Neudeck, Haller und Glaßbrenner in Schramberg-Sulgen knows that. First of all, however, he makes it clear that, according to the provision of § 536 c BGB, tenants are obliged to inform the landlord immediately of a defect in the apartment. “Usually, this is combined by the tenant with a removal request addressed to the landlord, which should be done with an appropriate deadline,” explains the lawyer.

However, the deadline should also be realistic: “Which deadline is to be regarded as reasonable depends on the individual case. For example, the tenant can be expected to wait longer with the replacement of leaky windows than with the repair of a defective heating system during the heating period. ” But even if the deadline set by the tenant is unreasonable, the landlord is still obliged to try to get the repairs done quickly, emphasizes Haller.

But what if the landlord does not issue a repair order at all? “Then the tenant is entitled under § 536 a BGB to commission the repair himself and then to demand reimbursement of the costs incurred from the landlord,” says the lawyer.

It always depends on the urgency of eliminating the defect

However, if a timely elimination of the defect is not realistic for actual reasons such as the lack of craftsmen, the tenant only has the option of making use of his right to a reduction under § 536 BGB. “The tenant then only has to pay an appropriately reduced rent for the time during which the defectiveness of the rented property exists. The amount of the respective rent reduction depends on the respective individual case and in particular on the degree of severity of the defect,” explains Haller.

According to the lawyer, there is no specific time window in which defective items in a rented apartment have to be replaced by the landlord: “The urgency of remedying the defect always depends on the extent to which the usability of the rented property is impaired by the defect.”

For example, a disruption in the water supply or a broken heating system should always be repaired immediately by the landlord, while smaller defects, such as a defective socket, can also take several weeks to be repaired, explains Haller. “The situation is different, of course, if the heating or the water supply fails for a longer period of time and it is foreseeable that a timely repair is not possible.”

Landlords must fix defects

In principle, the landlord also has to remedy all defects that occur during the rental period – regardless of whether it is a broken shower or a defective socket. This also applies to any special equipment such as an awning or a fireplace, if these are also part of the rental property and the rental agreement, explains the lawyer.

If a fitted kitchen is included in the lease, the landlord also has to take care of the repair or replacement of defective kitchen appliances such as a refrigerator or stove, says Haller. If the fitted kitchen is not part of the rental agreement, the tenant must arrange for a replacement or repair himself.

When it comes to mold, circumstances matter

But what about mold in the apartment? Here, too, it depends on the circumstances, explains the lawyer: “If it is undisputed between the tenant and the landlord that the mold infestation is due to defects in the building, the landlord is obliged to commission the work to remove the mold at his own expense .” How quickly this has to happen depends on how advanced the mold infestation is and in which rooms it occurs: “In the case of mold infestation in the living room or bedroom, for example, there is a greater need for urgency than is the case with mold in a storage room or in the bathroom is.”

However, tenants and landlords often argue about the cause of the mold infestation, the lawyer reports: “Because landlords often accuse tenants of incorrect user behavior in this context, while tenants just as often refer to the fact that they ventilate and heat properly and accordingly the cause in deficiencies of the building.” However, this question can be clarified by obtaining a corresponding expert opinion.

Then tenants can insist on a rent reduction

But regardless of whether it is a case of mold growth or the repair of an object in the rented property – if certain criteria are met, a tenant can insist on a rent reduction. It is even the case that the rent reduction in accordance with the provision of § 536 BGB occurs automatically with the occurrence of the defect and the associated restriction of use by the tenant, explains the lawyer. “In this respect, there is no need for any kind of ‘declaration of reduction’ from the tenant,” says Haller.

Nevertheless, the tenant must of course immediately notify the landlord of a defect in the rented property in order to give the landlord the opportunity to take care of a repair or a replacement. If the tenant does not do this, he cannot insist on a rent reduction. In addition, the renter must not be responsible for the defect himself.

The amount of the respective reduction always depends on the degree of restriction of the usability of the rented apartment, Haller explains again. If only one of a total of 15 sockets is defective, this would not mean any reduction in rent at all. “If, on the other hand, the heating were to fail completely in the winter months, this could – depending on the prevailing cold – lead to the tenant being completely released from his obligation to pay rent for the duration of the heating failure.”