Have you received a rent increase letter?

First and foremost: don’t sign the rent increase before it has been properly checked. Otherwise your approval cannot be revoked. As soon as you receive the letter with the rent increase, you have a consideration time. The deadline is until the end of the month plus two additional months, meaning that you have between two and three months time.

Several thousand tenants have had their rent increases checked by us: We found that roughly every second rent increase was unlawful and could be repelled by us. Don’t act hastily and make use of your right to reject the rent increase.

After receiving your documents one of our contract lawyers will check your case. If your rent increase in unlawful, the lawyer will seek for the landlord to (at least partially) take back the rent increase. The landlord receives an official letter, in which our lawyer politely informs the landlord why the rent increase in unlawful. In most cases, the landlord then no longer insists on the rent increase, and the rent increase is halted.

If the landlord insists to increase the rent, he will need to file a lawsuit to get the tenant to consent to it. If this is the case, our contract lawyers represent you in court and we cover the court and lawyer fees. You won’t carry any cost risk.

Most landlords know that it’s them breaking the law and not the tenants. Since our letters deploy legal languarge and facts, the landlords usually also react professionally and calm. In many cases the clerks of the property managers or the real estate companies take care of the matter. Some landlords also work with lawyers, which is good as it professionalizes the situation.

No. The landlord cannot terminate your agreement, just because you are making use of your rights or because you commission us to do so. If the tenants fulfill their obligations, there is only one possibility of terminating a rental contract: “Eigenbedarf” (own use). If your landlord is a company, this option is already out of question. Only a private person can make use of “Eigenbedarf” and this is only possible under strict rules, which a lot of private landlords are not following. This means that even for the unlikely case of you receiving a termination letter referring to “Eigenbedarf”, we have good chances of defending it.

First and foremost: you are only charged a fee, if we successfully reject the rent increase for you. If we do, our fee will be 3x your monthly saving (inclusive of VAT).

E.g. you receive a rent increase of 31,50€ per month (378€ per year). Our contingency fee would be 94,50€ (inclusive of VAT). There would be no additional or hidden costs for you. Our protection letter (Schutzbrief) terms and conditions apply.

Our contract lawyers are subject to professional secrecy and as a company we assure you that any data you provide will be handled diligently, confidentially and will only be used to process your cases on rent issues. Additionally all of our data is saved on German AWS servers. We are certified by the Technical Control Board (TÜV) for securing your personal data and protecting them by the highest legal standards.

Upon request, we will inform you about all the personal data that we store about you. If you no longer consent to the storage of your personal data, you can request to delete all of your data by emailing us to info@wenigermiete.de (add the keyword “Datenlöschung” in the subject line). Further information can be found at: wenigermiete.de/datenschutz

We are a consumer protection portal specialising on enforcing tenants’ rights. Wenigermiete.de works with experienced lawyers that have comprehensive practical knowledge. We have already lowered the rent of several thousand households by hundreds of Euros and rejected rent increases, contract terminations and cosmetic repairs costs without straining the relationship between the tenant and the landlord. Our service has been tested by “Stiftung Warentest” which compiles an ongoing list of our cases won.

Several other consumer rights portals have tested our service and you can read into the results here

If your landlords wants to increase the rent after having invested in renovation or modernization you should als get the letter checked through our usual rent increase questionnaire.

So-called “Indexmiete” (index rent) or “Staffelmiete” (graduated rent) usually don’t require your signature or approval which means you are obliged to pay the higher rent. However, you might still be eligible to lower your rent using rent control law. Many tenants don’t know that the “Mietpreisbremse” also applies to renting agreements with index or graduated rents or to furnished apartments.