Negotiate a rent adjustment with the tenant

What you need:

• Comparison objects
• Expert opinion
• Modernization measure

A rent increase harbors a high potential for controversy. If you want or need to adjust the rent, you are well advised to prepare well with arguments. Tenants know their rights. If you also know your rights, you can avoid some unnecessary arguments.

Justify rent adjustment in a comprehensible manner

• Avoid the impression of an arbitrary rent increase. Keep in mind that the law provides that the tenant expressly gives his consent to the adjustment. Only if the tenant is silent and the increased voluntarily rent pays unconditionally for a period of at least five months, you can assume his tacit consent.
• So try to find a convincing justification for your rent adjustment. As a landlord, you can increase the rent if you want to modernize the apartment or adjust the rent to the local comparative rent.

Highlight the benefits for the tenant

• When you modernize, you should focus on the advantages that will also result qualitatively for the tenant and his living situation. When planning your modernization, you should consider whether and to what extent your tenant is financially able to cope with a rent adjustment. It is often the case that tenants are financially overwhelmed and you as the landlord provoke his contradiction in an act of desperation.
• If you would like to justify the rent adjustment with the local rent, you should use the rent index, a Information from a rental database, a rent increase report or at least three comparable apartments to name.


Object to rent increases - you should pay attention to this

"Inflation is to blame" - many tenants hear this as a reason when ...

• Bear in mind that the rent index alone is unlikely to be convincing, as tenants will perceive their living situation as not comparable.

Argue with comparable apartments

• The cheapest way to go is if you can name three comparable apartments that are located in the immediate vicinity of your tenant's apartment and that are as comparable as possible. Pay attention to the square meter prices, the location and the equipment. You should give the addresses of the comparable apartments and give the tenant the opportunity to get a personal impression on site.
• If you would like to have an appraisal prepared, the appraiser must be publicly appointed and sworn in and deal with rental price evaluations. Make sure that the tenant can understand the individual steps on which the appraiser bases his assessment. The appraiser must make a statement on the local comparative rent and classify your apartment in the local rent structure.
• Point out to the tenant that you therefore need the higher rent in order to service the debt financing Your property.

There are also unofficial arguments

• If the rent has been unchanged for a long time, point out that the tenant has been given preferential treatment and, in fairness, he should agree to a rent adjustment.
• Come one termination due to possible personal needs, inform the tenant about this possibility. Point out to him that it is cheaper for you to use the apartment yourself than to rent it out disproportionately cheaply.
• Inform the tenant of the possibility of applying for housing benefit from the municipality if the income is low.