Rent madness | GMRE legacy: Heimstaden fails with rent increase in Berlin

A banner with the inscription “Stop Heimstaden – Save Kiezleben” hangs on the facade of a house not far from Wildenbruchplatz in Neukölln. Photo: dpa/Paul Zinken “Why do we need an information campaign so that we, tenants of Heimstaden, don’t get ripped off?” A spokeswoman for “Stop Heimstaden” asked “nd” this rhetorical question. Tenants from the Heimstaden real estate group have joined forces in the initiative. With around 20,000 apartments under its ownership, Heimstaden is one of the largest real estate groups in Berlin.

What “Stop Heimstaden” is currently particularly concerned about are rental agreements that Heimstaden did not conclude itself. In 2020, the company took over 130 houses with around 3,900 apartments from the real estate company GMRE and thus numerous rental agreements with special index clauses.

These state that after the graduated rental agreement has expired, the landlord is entitled to adjust the rent in accordance with the legal requirements for index rent. In a graduated rental agreement, automatic rent increases are agreed for a certain period of time. An index rental agreement is based on the cost of living. The rent is then adjusted according to inflation.

“Why do we need an information campaign so that we tenants in Heimstaden don’t get ripped off?”

You can see what this means by looking at a ruling from the Wedding district court, which is available “nd”. In this case, Heimstaden intended to increase the basic rent, which had been around 703 euros since 2017, by 187 euros at the end of 2024 for a household with a rental agreement from 2011 - an increase of more than 25 percent. The tenants defended themselves against the increase, first out of court, then with the help of the judiciary. And that proved the tenants right. The judgment mentioned has been legally binding since the beginning of September 2026.

The court explains in its ruling that the clause that allows the rent to be adjusted according to the contract is invalid. This only allows the landlord to adjust the rent. In order to be legally effective, the clause should also have given the tenant this option - for example if the index were to fall and the rent could therefore be reduced. The tenants in this case do not have to fear such a drastic rent increase and will receive a refund for the excess rent paid after the increase.

Heimstaden spokesman Michael Lippitsch explains in response to nd's request that, from Heimstaden's perspective, the tenants could have demanded a rent adjustment if the index had fallen. The judgment is noted, but no statement can be made as to whether conclusions can be drawn from it for other tenancies.

According to "Stop Heimstaden", this is not the first case in which a rent increase based on an old GMRE clause fails in Berlin courts. If you add up all the cases known to the initiative, a five-figure amount of overpaid rent has already been refunded, according to “Stop Heimstaden”. »Several tenants are still in the starting blocks and now also want to defend themselves against the index clause in their old GMRE contract.«

"The topic is not new and only affects a fraction of our properties."

However, it is unclear how many contracts there are in total with the clause in question. “Stop Heimstaden” wants to raise awareness among tenants who could be affected by the clause and distributed flyers in all former GMRE properties in April. The initiative calls on all tenants to check whether there is a corresponding clause in the contract. You should get the money back.

“The topic is not new and only affects a fraction of our properties,” says Heimstaden spokesman Lippitsch. Contracts were specifically checked for index clauses some time ago and inadmissible passages were identified in a few cases. Heimstaden then made necessary corrections. "In general, if we identify invalid passages or other defects in contracts concluded by previous owners, Heimstaden has the greatest interest in curing these and creating legal certainty for both sides."

For “Stop Heimstaden” fundamental questions arise: “Why is it the sole responsibility of us tenants to ensure compliance with the law and to insist on it?” asks the initiative. “Stop Heimstaden” also has a solution to the problem: “We are calling on politicians to ban index rents and to legally require the conversion of index rental agreements into regular rental agreements!” Because the rents are already too high anyway, and index rents are a “massive rent driver.”

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