Berlin-Lichtenberg (Hohenschönhauser Straße) – partly furnished sublet: €680 → €460, ~€2,340 claimed (pending)
Date Published
Partly furnished sublet in Lichtenberg — proceedings pending. Permissible net cold rent about €460; €1,000 all-inclusive was charged – against a head-lease rent of about €570.
An approximately 57 m² partly furnished prefabricated flat from the municipal stock in Berlin-Lichtenberg was sublet at €1,000 per month – as an all-inclusive rent for heating, electricity, water and internet, without a separately stated net cold rent. Under the Berlin rent index 2026 the permissible net cold rent is at most about €460.
How stark the mismatch is appears from the rent the sublandlord herself owes: she is the head tenant and put her own rent at about €570 when asked. Legally the head rent is not the yardstick – the permissible rent is measured against the local comparative rent under § 556d para. 1 BGB, and it is not a prior rent under § 556e para. 1 BGB. The scale still speaks for itself.
The sublandlord explained the surcharge of about €320 per month by insurance, furniture purchases and fitting-out the flat in 2021. Those are not operating costs (§ 556 para. 1 BGB, § 2 BetrKV); such items form part of the net cold rent and are subject to the rent cap. After deducting electricity and internet, and even with operating and heating costs generously assumed, a net cold rent of at least about €680 remains – a good €12/m² in a simple location.
Does an exception apply? Not in the slightest. The building became ready for occupation between 1973 and 1990, so it is not new-build under § 556f sentence 1 BGB; comprehensive modernisation has not been shown. Partial furnishing adds nothing: the surcharge follows the current value of the furniture – here simple used furniture from 2021, about €10 per month. Standard fittings such as the fitted kitchen are already reflected in the span classification and must not be paid for twice.
We have objected to the exceedance of about €220 per month and demanded a reduction to about €460, repayment of rent overpaid since the start of the tenancy (about €1,450), release of the deposit paid above § 551 BGB (about €620) and reimbursement of a dishwasher repair commissioned by the tenant (€266). Proceedings are ongoing; we will report once the out-of-court clarification is complete.
Anyone who objects within the first 30 months after the tenancy begins can usually reclaim overpaid rent since the start of the tenancy (§ 556g para. 2 BGB). Even later, a review is worthwhile: the rent can at least be reduced for the future, and overpaid amounts from receipt of the objection can be recovered.
Any repayments flow in full to the tenants – without assignment and without commission.
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