Letter demanding the return of a rental deposit (Germany)
Published byDocMuse
This document is in German
The PDF you download is in German — that is the language it has to be filed in, so it is not translated. Everything on this page is here to tell you what it says.
The letter a tenant in Germany sends after moving out to get the deposit back. It states the end of the tenancy, the handover and the deposit, demands repayment with interest under § 551(3) of the German Civil Code (BGB) — or release of the pledged deposit account or the guarantee — by a deadline, asks for an itemised settlement with receipts, and limits any retention to a fair part for the outstanding service-charge bill. German law sets no fixed repayment date, so the letter promises none. In German, to print, sign and send.
What you fill in
The details the document asks for.
- Tenant
- Tenant's address
- Landlord
- Landlord's postal address (street, then postcode and town on the next line)
- City
- Date
- Address of the property
- Date of the contract
- End date of the contract
- Handover date
- Deposit amount
- Payment deadline
- What the landlord is to do (depends on how the deposit was given)
- IBAN
Preview
This document is produced for you. Your answers are typed into it and the finished PDF is yours to keep.
Common questions
- By when must a landlord in Germany repay the deposit?
- There is no fixed statutory deadline. The claim falls due once the landlord, after a reasonable period to check, has no open counter-claims; three to six months is the usual guide in practice, longer in complicated cases. If a back-payment on the service charges is expected, the landlord may keep a fair part until that bill is drawn up. So the letter sets a concrete deadline without claiming the law fixes one.
- Can a landlord in Germany set off damage claims that are already time-barred?
- Yes, on one condition. Claims for changes to the flat lapse six months after it is handed back (§ 548(1) BGB), but the Federal Court of Justice allows them to be set off against the deposit even afterwards if set-off was possible before the period ran out (§ 215 BGB; BGH VIII ZR 184/23 of 10 July 2024). That is why the letter asks for a settlement naming each counter-claim with its reason, amount and receipt.
- Is a tenant in Germany owed interest on the deposit?
- Yes. A cash deposit must be kept apart from the landlord's own money, with a bank, at the usual rate for savings with three months' notice; the interest belongs to the tenant and is added to the deposit (§ 551(3) BGB). A landlord who did not invest it that way is liable for the interest lost. With a pledged savings account in the tenant's own name, the interest builds up there anyway.
- How should a deposit demand in Germany be sent so that receipt can be proved?
- German law prescribes no form, and an e-mail works if it arrives — what counts is receipt, not sending (§ 130 BGB). The safest routes are handing the letter over against a signed receipt, or having a messenger who has read it post it and note the time and place. The tracking status of an Einwurf-Einschreiben does not prove receipt on its own (BAG 2 AZR 68/24), so ask for the delivery record. If the landlord still does not pay, the next step is a court payment order (Mahnbescheid) or a claim at the local court.
How you can sign this document
- Print it and sign by hand. The signature lines in the document are left blank on purpose — sign on them in ink.
- Sign it yourself with a qualified electronic signature. If you already hold a QES — Evrotrust, B-Trust, StampIT, ZealiD or any qualified provider on the EU Trusted List, on a card, a USB token, in a mobile app or in the cloud — our signing guide explains step by step how to sign this exact file without invalidating it. Step-by-step help, and a way to check it worked
DocMuse sells documents, not legal advice. Acceptance always depends on the recipient's rules and your local law.
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