Got comments or ideas?
Drop us a line! Your feedback helps us make WOHNO better.
Guides, market data and tools for renters, buyers, landlords and sellers – concise and always tied to what you do on WOHNO.
25 articles
Portable, PortaSplit or permanently installed? When you as a tenant need consent, what landlords have to tolerate – and why the July 2026 Federal Court of Justice ruling doesn't mean for tenants what everyone claims. With TA Lärm noise limits, running costs, winter heating, hygiene, insurance, a template letter and the landlord's perspective.
Received an own-use termination (Eigenbedarfskündigung)? This guide walks you through it from the tenant's side: who qualifies as the person with the need (§ 573 BGB), how the staggered periods really calculate (§ 573c BGB), which five formal defects topple a termination, how the hardship objection works (§ 574 BGB) – and what you can claim if the own-use need was only pretended. With an interactive deadline and formal-defect check.
Mould, a cold heater, construction noise: with a genuine defect you may reduce the rent – by operation of law, no application needed. The catch isn't the percentage, but the risk behind it: whoever cuts too much builds up rent arrears and, in the worst case, risks termination without notice. This article shows the right order (report first, then reduce), calculates from the gross rent, frames the case-law rates as ranges – and explains the safe route: paying under reservation.
A handover protocol is not required by law – but it is your most important piece of evidence. This article shows what really belongs in it at move-in and move-out, who is liable for defects (the burden of proof runs in two stages, not a blanket „the tenant
Got an increase letter? Check two things separately: the amount (the cap limit and the local comparative rent – the lower value wins) and the form (justification, text form, the double blocking period). Why a formal error voids the whole demand while an excessive amount only voids the excess – plus an interactive checker with a deadline calculator.
Got a Nebenkostenabrechnung in hand? Check it in five steps: the two 12-month deadlines kept apart, the four mandatory formal details, the 17 chargeable cost types under the BetrKV, the allocation key, and the 15% heating-cost reduction – plus an interactive plausibility checker with no file upload.
Jump straight to a topic