Berlin: tenant problems

I have a tenant in my apartment for the last five months, under a 6 month contract with a management company. The current tenant contacted the management company a number of times asking them address some issues including plumbing which was a result of low water pressure. The tenants subsequently stop paying rent and when the management company would'nt address the issue I sacked them .
I arranged a plumber to fix the problem, which he has, and the tenant still has no paid rent, despite numerous emails which he has failed to respond to reply to , and phonecalls which he wont return.
I have sent him a further email today with a notice of eviction if he fails to pay the outstanding rent in the next week or otherwise he will have to be evicted.
As of yet no response..
Then there is the eviction issue: how do I go about it? Do I go to the police, etc?
Also just to state: the contract which he signed with the original management company was for 6 months with the possibilty of extension.
If anybody has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it.
Bobby

bobbalina said:

I have a tenant in my apartment for the last five months, under a 6 month contract with a management company. The current tenant contacted the management company a number of times asking them address some issues including plumbing which was a result of low water pressure. The tenants subsequently stop paying rent and when the management company would'nt address the issue I sacked them .
I arranged a plumber to fix the problem, which he has, and the tenant still has no paid rent, despite numerous emails which he has failed to respond to reply to , and phonecalls which he wont return.
I have sent him a further email today with a notice of eviction if he fails to pay the outstanding rent in the next week or otherwise he will have to be evicted.
As of yet no response..
Then there is the eviction issue: how do I go about it? Do I go to the police, etc?
Also just to state: the contract which he signed with the original management company was for 6 months with the possibilty of extension.
If anybody has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it.
Bobby

Click to expand...

I would suggest you get professional legal assistance in Germany. Most tenants are either members of a Mieteverein (renters union) or have Rechtschutz (legal counsel insurance) so you may well be faced with a professional legal expert as an adversary. It is the experience of a lot of my friends that the courts tend to favour the tenant in a straight dispute. Strangely enough, non payment of rent is not always a reason to evict. If they have even the intention to pay, but cannot, there is generally no grounds for eviction. Tenants are also entitled to a reduced rent or to withhold rent completely if there are incomplete or late repairs to accomodation. I'm not sure how you can "sack" the management agent because you say the tenancy contract was signed via them and not direct with you. So the tenant may be perfectly entitled to ignore everything you say as their agreement is with the agent, not with you. You may want to consider another tack. Presuming the contract extension was by mutual agreement, you may also want to consider giving formal notice that you do not wish to extend the current contract and then following up for the unpaid rent from the current contract as a separate issue. And for the sake of your own sanity, make sure you get an independent log of all communications, preferably by registered letter (Einschreiben mit Rückschein.) A notice given by email will almost certainly not be considered valid in Germany.

Here's an English post from the point of view of the tenant.

[broken link removed]

Disclaimer: I've lived in Germany and dealt with landlords but I aint no German lawyer.

I am a bit surprised that you did not check out your legal position as a landlord before you decided to invest in another country!

HI Bobbilina. I've been tricking about with property in Berlin for a few years now and if your not there to manage it yourself, you NEED someone that is based in Berlin and who knows the system to manage it for you. I can suggest a person that I deal with regularly. He's excellent, honest, wont screw you and is great with problem tenants. Can I ask where the apartment is and why you only have a 6 month let? Is it ground floor by any chance..they're often difficult to let successsfully.

Many thanks for everybody's helpful comments. I have now resolved the issue after some protracted conversation with the tenant so fingers crossed the issue will not rise again.
And yes, I was a bit foolhardy in blindly investing in a country where I had not realised the full ramifications.
Despite these teething problems, the price which I bought for (under 25k) in Kreuzberg has turned into a fortuitous little investment. I notice that even in the last 6 months prices have been going up and there is nothing available in Kreuzberg under 50k. Its on a 6 month let as people are paying over the odds for short-term lets in Kreuzberg, Friedrichschain & Prenzlauerberg so its giving me a tidy little return.
I am not an experienced investor at all, im only just starting out, so these things can be most certainly a learning curve so many thanks for everybodies comments and suggestions.