Rent index - review of rent increases
The rent index provides an overview of the standard local comparative rent in the city of Munich. A rent increase must be justified in accordance with the rent index.
Description
The rent index serves to make the rent structure in the non-price-restricted housing stock as transparent as possible in order to
- Avoid disputes between parties to rental agreements that may arise from ignorance of the rent structure, even in out-of-court proceedings,
- to provide the civil courts with a reliable decision-making aid in the event of a dispute, so that in many cases there is no need to obtain a time-consuming and cost-intensive expert opinion, and
- as a reliable source of information to avoid rent overcharges in accordance with Section 5 of the Economic Offences Act. If a rent overcharge is suspected, an application can be made to prosecute this administrative offence. The enforcement of Section 5 of the Economic Offences Act offers tenants of privately financed housing protection against overpriced rents.
- According to Section 5 of the Economic Offences Act, anyone who intentionally or recklessly demands, allows themselves to be promised or accepts unreasonably high fees for the letting of residential premises or associated ancillary services is committing an administrative offence.
The offence can be punished with a fine of up to 50,000 euros. In addition, the overpaid rent can be ordered to be repaid in the fine proceedings.
- According to Section 5 of the Economic Offences Act, anyone who intentionally or recklessly demands, allows themselves to be promised or accepts unreasonably high fees for the letting of residential premises or associated ancillary services is committing an administrative offence.
Tenants and landlords can obtain free advice on the subject of rent increases and the application of the rent index for Munich.
Advice is given in person (only by prior appointment on 089 233-40200) or by telephone on the advice hotline 089 233-40057 during office hours. An interpreter can be called in if your language skills are insufficient.
We recommend that you use a current version of Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer or Opera Browser to use the online rent index calculation programme.
Required documents
- Rental agreement
- current and last rent increase
- Flat description sheet
Questions & Answers
- The so-called Rent Control applies to tenancy agreements concluded in Munich from 7 August 2019. According to Section 556 d (1) of the German Civil Code (BGB), in areas with a tight housing market, the rent at the start of the tenancy may not exceed the local comparative rent by more than 10 per cent.
- There are some exceptions to the rent cap. It does not apply if living space is rented out that was first used and rented out after 1 October 2014. The rent freeze also does not apply to the first letting after extensive modernisation. In this case, case law requires modernisation costs to be around one third of the cost of new construction.
- If the rent owed by the previous tenant (previous rent) is higher than the rent permitted under Section 556d (1) BGB (see above), a rent up to the amount of the previous rentmaybe agreed (Section 556e (1) BGB).
- In accordance with Section 556g (2) BGB, a tenant can only demand a refund of rent not owed in accordance with Sections 556d and 556e BGB if they have complained about this breach of the provisions of the rent freeze. The rent freeze is a regulation under private law. Therefore, tenants who wish to exercise their rights must take legal action against their landlords (unlike § 5 WiStG) before the civil courts.
The printed rent index can be collected free of charge from the following offices
- Office for Housing and Migration, Franziskanerstraße 8, 81669 Munich
- City information centre in the town hall, Marienplatz 8, 80331 Munich
Rent indexes dating back to 1975 can be requested as a brochure. If you are interested in the rent index for Munich as a brochure, you can request it by calling 233-40200.
The Office for Housing and Migration will send you the brochure free of charge if you send a self-addressed large letter stamped with 1.60 euros.