Rental Disputes | Delinquent Tenants | Rental Misuse

As a landlord, in recent years you are well advised to have a prospective tenant checked for creditworthiness and reliability before renting out a flat or property. Our corporate detectives in Bochum are happy to assist you in this regard: +49 234 3075 0073.

Tenancy Nomads: an Annoying Phenomenon of Recent Years

Increasingly, the media report on so-called tenancy nomads: people who rent a flat, pay the monthly rent two or three times or not at all – and then never again. By the time you have sued these tenants out of the flat/house, months will have passed. During that period you incur – often enormous – financial losses. On the one hand, you receive no rental income for the property in that time; on the other hand, your flat, the satisfaction of other tenants and neighbours and possibly your fittings suffer from the often antisocial behaviour of the occupants, which can sometimes be far worse and far more costly than the missing rent. In many cases the rented property is vandalised, filled with rubbish and fittings are even removed. When you finally regain access to your flat/house, the damage is usually immense. Do not let it come to that; contact the detectives of Kurtz Corporate Detective Agency Bochum before letting, so that you can be sure you are entrusting your property to a reliable tenant: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-bochum.de.

Feigning Defects to the Rented Property as a Systematic Method to Withhold Rent

Another, somewhat more sophisticated method of tenancy misuse is the permanent rent reduction by feigning alleged defects, as the following case from 2012 shows:

 

Mrs Brecht (all names changed) had taken a flat from landlord Mr Ackermann. After two months she informed him that the walls were turning grey, apparently dust contamination from the heating; Mr Ackermann should take care of it. She would therefore reduce the rent by 30 per cent because of this defect. The landlord wrote back that the flat – including the heating – had been handed over in perfect condition. The following month Mrs Brecht claimed that parts of the walls were black, supposedly mould. Mr Ackermann checked on site and could not establish any mould. The month after that Mrs Brecht asserted that there was now extensive black discolouration. Mr Ackermann had had enough and presented her with a Federal Court of Justice judgment stating that the tenant must prove the landlord’s fault in the defects and, of course, the existence of the defects themselves. Mrs Brecht then claimed it was merely dust from the heating. She nevertheless continued to withhold 30 per cent of the rent.

 

Mr Ackermann commissioned Kurtz Detective Agency Bochum to find the contact details of Mrs Brecht’s previous landlord, as the matter was becoming suspicious. After successfully tracing that previous landlord, Mr Claasen, Mr Ackermann contacted him. Mr Claasen reported that the same thing had happened to him when letting a flat to Mrs Brecht. Both landlords then contacted the prior prior landlord, Mrs Dietrich, whose telephone number Mr Claasen knew. The same thing had happened to her. Coincidentally, Mrs Dietrich had the same lawyer as Mr Ackermann; in this special case Mr Claasen joined the joint lawsuit.

 

If you have also been defrauded by a tenant or are suffering other forms of tenancy misuse, then turn to the corporate detectives of Kurtz Corporate Detective Agency Bochum with confidence: +49 234 3075 0073.