Tenacy laws in the EU eg France, Germany, Denmark

rightwingdub

For people on the threads I just have a few questions regarding security of tenure legislation in various European countries.

1) How long are tenants in a lease with their landlord/lady for?
2) Are rents determined by governments or are they determined by the market?
3) How easy or difficult is it for home owners to kick out nbad tenants ie for falling behind on payments or compliants of anti social behaviour.
4) How percentage are homeowners allowed to increase the rent by each year?
5) What basic criteria are private landlords legally obliged to provide ie suitability and renovation work?


I believe that there is greater securityt of tenure legislation in a lot of European countries when compared to Ireland and this is one of the reasons why people are more willing to rent long term rather than home ownership which seems to be the favoured option amongst the majority of Irish people.

mdebets

rightwingdub wrote: »

For people on the threads I just have a few questions regarding security of tenure legislation in various European countries.

1) How long are tenants in a lease with their landlord/lady for?
2) Are rents determined by governments or are they determined by the market?
3) How easy or difficult is it for home owners to kick out nbad tenants ie for falling behind on payments or compliants of anti social behaviour.
4) How percentage are homeowners allowed to increase the rent by each year?
5) What basic criteria are private landlords legally obliged to provide ie suitability and renovation work?


I believe that there is greater securityt of tenure legislation in a lot of European countries when compared to Ireland and this is one of the reasons why people are more willing to rent long term rather than home ownership which seems to be the favoured option amongst the majority of Irish people.

Germany
1) You normally have an open-ended lease with a notice period of 3 months (tenant) and 3-9 months (landlord, dependent on how long the tenant is renting the appartment)

2) The landlord, but the government creates an rent-index (normally for a city and town) and the rent can normally not be higher than 20% of the average of this index. Going over the 20% can be a misdemeanour, if the supply of empty appartments is limited. Going over 50% can be a criminal offence in certain circumstances.


3) officially, you can terminate a lease after the tenant hasn't paid the rent for two consecutive months. However the most likely following court case might take some while, before the tennant has finally to leave.

4) not more than 20% in 3 years.

5) Renovation is legally the landlord's responsibility. However most leases state that the tenant is responsible for cosmetic renovations, like painting, and normally also has to do yhem when he moves out. This means however also that the landlord has no right to restrict the painting of the appartment or how the walls are decorated.

On additional point, which I think is realy important is the possibility of the tenant to reduce the rent if the landlord isn't performing his duties, e.g if he isn't repairing a broken heating or broken waterpipe, the tenant can reduce his rent by a certain percentage.

gurramok

mdebets, on the continent, can a landlord evict a tenant when that landlord wishes to sell the property or give it to one of his relatives like in the tenancy legislation here?

mdebets

gurramok wrote: »

mdebets, on the continent, can a landlord evict a tenant when that landlord wishes to sell the property or give it to one of his relatives like in the tenancy legislation here?

It;s in princible possible that a landlord can evict a tenant if he wan'ts to live in the appartment himself or wants to give it to a relative, but the rules are tighlt regulated. He can only give it to a close relative (parents, children, grandchildren, siblings, nieces and nephews, or a relative to whom he has a close bond). He has to give sensible and comprehensible reasons. He can't just say he wants his son to move into the appartment, but he has to give reasons why and the tenant has the right to check these reasons (the reason that he just wants to live in the appartment is not enough). He also can't evict them, if he has for example another comparable free appartment, which he could give to his relative.

The landlord can't evict someone, just because he wants to sell the house. Neither can the buyer. He has to follow the normal process for a landlord who wants to evict someone to live in the appartment himself. There is theoretically the possibility that the landlord can evict the tenant if he can prove that he could sell the apprtment for more (I think threshold is about 20%) without a tenant. If he however sells it later for less, he has to pay hefty penalties.

There is alos the possibilities in all these eviction procedures, as long as the tenant complies with his lease, that a court says that it is not reasonable to evict the tenant, e.g. if the tenant is old or sick.

galah

Also, in a lot of cases (in Germany at least), you don't rent from private landlords, but from building societies (for lack of a better word, "Wohnungsbau" in German), who are fairly tightly regulated. Both my grandmothers have been renting their apartments for the past 60 years, each, and have not regretted it, since rents are low, you can decorate a place whichever way you like, but still are not responsible for any major repairs. Easy living, at least for their generation.

Also, in Germany, you rent an empty apartment/house, and bring all your own furniture and whitegoods. Makes moving so much more annoying, but also allows you to make a place your own without owning it.

About 'how easy is it to evict tenants'- not easy at all. Tenant's rights are very strong, and it can take years to evict tenants, even if they are clearly anti-social, not paying rent, etc. (heard a few nasty stories from home...).

rightwingdub

What happens when a tenant reaches retirement age ie 65, In Ireland the tenant is at the mercy of the landlord/lady, is there legislation in place to protect pensioners who are renting?

Thats interesting that in Germany the tenant has to provide cutlery, furniture etc, in Ireland the landlord/lady is legally obliged to prvide things like furniture and bedding. My sister and her husband live in Australia and when they went to live there in 2007 they rented originally and had to buy their own cutlery,furniture, bedding etc.

How long are leases for, In ireland it is normally 12 months?

DubDani

In Germany leases are usually "unlimited", i.e. rolling contracts. The notice period for the landlord depends on how long the tenants have been living in the place. It's at least 3 months, and can be as long as a year (if living there for ten years or more).

As said above if you pay your rent on time it is almost impossible to evict a tenant, except if you want to move in yourself. There are no specific laws for peoper over 65. Why should there be? A 80 year old has the same tenancy rights then a 20 year old.

Another thing is that according to german law the tenant is the "temporary owner" of the place and can more or less do whatever he wants in the apartment as long as he leaves it in the same condition as he received it.

A tenant can paint it in whatever colour he likes, can drill as many holes as he wants and will even be able to move walls (non-structural), as long as he makes sure everything is back to the way it was when he moves out. AS a lot of tenants have lived in the place for 10 or more years it is not uncommon for tenants to do major renovations themself (like laying carpets or wooden floors), as they view the place their own home.

German apartments and houses come usually completely empty with the exception of a built-in kitchen. Furnished apartments are more or less unheard of, and I don't think there would be any demand for it.

When you move in the place has either been painted, which means you have to paint it the same colour when you move out, or the place comes without a fresh coat of paint, which means you decorate it yourself when you move in, but then don't have to do anything when you move out.

mdebets

rightwingdub wrote: »

What happens when a tenant reaches retirement age ie 65, In Ireland the tenant is at the mercy of the landlord/lady, is there legislation in place to protect pensioners who are renting?

no specific legislation for pensionesr, but you normally need a reason to terminate the lease (mostly missbehaviour of the tenant or that the landlord wants to move in himself or someone of his close family). The older the tenant gets, the harder the 2nd possibility is, as a judge would have to decided how fair it would be, to throw the tenant out as compared to letting the landlord or his close family So if the landlord wants to move his sick mother in the appartment fore whom he is going to care for and he lives next door, it might be likely that he can throw out the pensioner. But if he wants to move in his nephew, just becaus he wants to live there, its unlikely.

rightwingdub wrote: »

How long are leases for, In ireland it is normally 12 months?

They are normally open-ended

JuliusCaesar

rightwingdub wrote: »

Thats interesting that in Germany the tenant has to provide cutlery, furniture etc, in Ireland the landlord/lady is legally obliged to prvide things like furniture and bedding.

The landlord is only obliged to provide these items if he is letting the residence as Furnished, rather than Unfurnished.

The reason that most rented residences in Ireland are let Furnished, is because the tenants have greater rights if they rent an Unfurnished residence.

There is no legal obligation on the landlord to provide furnishings.

jester77

I find the rental situation in Germany works great. Most topics have been covered already in this thread. Rental prices are based on square meter calculations, with the price per square meter based on a recommended index from the local city.

You move into an empty apartment, they don't even have light fixtures, and you do as you please. I asked to landlord could I throw out the old kitchen and install a new one and it was no problem. As I was living in an altbau, it needed a lot of rewiring and plumbing, the landlord paid for this and I paid for the kitchen. Whenever I move out I can get the next tenant (or landlord) to pay towards the kitchen based on what it would be worth at the time after depreciation.