The Berlin rental cover is legally controversial. An initiative in Bavaria also wants to stop rent increases – with moderate prospects of success. The tenants' association demands that the federal government create appropriate regulations, because that would be legally "completely unproblematic".
The German Tenants Association is calling for a nationwide freeze on rents. "We need a nationwide regulation, according to which rents can only be increased within the framework of the inflation rate in the next five to six years," said the President of the German Tenants' Association, Lukas Siebenkotten, the "Tagesspiegel" in Berlin. "Then the state laws would be unnecessary".
In Berlin, the red-red-green state government had introduced a legally controversial rent cap, which came into effect retrospectively at the end of February. This initially freezes rents, and particularly high rents can be reduced under certain circumstances. Lawsuits against the Berlin rental cover are pending before the Federal Constitutional Court and the Berlin Constitutional Court.
In Bavaria there is an initiative for a referendum, according to which rents may only rise by the rate of inflation for six years. The Bavarian Constitutional Court will decide on the advance on Thursday.
Due to the legal uncertainties, Siebenkotten advocated a nationwide legal regulation: "It would be better if the federal government introduced such a freeze". He was convinced that this would be "completely unproblematic" legally.
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