Open-ended residential lease, with optional notice waiver (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 usual German lease of a flat for an indefinite term, and the right choice for anyone who wants a fixed minimum term: the optional mutual waiver of ordinary notice binds both sides for up to four years, as far as the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) allows, without the reason a fixed-term lease under § 575 of the German Civil Code (BGB) would need. Otherwise the tenant gives three months' notice and the landlord needs a statutory reason. With the deposit rules of § 551 BGB, service charges under the BetrKV, stepped or index-linked rent, the rent-cap disclosure and decoration clauses that stand up in court. In German, to print and sign.
What you fill in
The details the document asks for.
- Landlord
- Landlord's address
- Tenant
- Tenant's date of birth
- Tenant's address
- Second tenant (if any)
- Second tenant's date of birth
- Address of the property
- Where the flat is in the building (e.g. 2nd floor left, flat 7)
- Rooms
- Area
- Let with the flat (cellar, parking space, fitted kitchen)
- Keys
- Start date
- Mutual waiver of ordinary notice (up to four years)
- Notice waiver until (at most four years after signing)
- Monthly net rent, excluding service charges
- Monthly advance on service charges
- IBAN
- How the rent changes (statutory rules, stepped rent or index-linked rent)
- Rent steps: date and new net rent in euros (stepped rent only)
- Rent cap at the start of the tenancy (Mietpreisbremse): not in force, kept, or an exception
- Exception from the rent cap and its details (such as the previous tenant's rent)
- Deposit
- Landlord's separate deposit account (IBAN)
- Decorating (painting, wallpaper): stays with the landlord, or the tenant's if the flat is handed over renovated
- Energy performance certificate: type, date issued and energy rating
- Other terms
- City
- Date
Preview
This document is produced for you. Your answers are typed into it and the finished PDF is yours to keep.
Common questions
- How long may a notice waiver in a German residential lease last?
- In a lease drafted by the landlord, at most four years from signing, and only if both sides waive. A longer standard-form waiver is void as a whole, and the tenant may then give three months' notice at any time (BGH VIII ZR 27/04). This lease therefore asks for the date on which the tenancy can first end by ordinary notice, no later than four years after signing. Extraordinary rights of termination remain.
- Fixed-term or open-ended lease in Germany — which fits when a minimum term is wanted?
- Almost always this one. German law allows a true fixed term only for the three reasons in § 575 BGB — own use, demolition or major works, staff housing — stated in writing at signing. A fixed-term lease without such a reason counts as open-ended, and the tenant can leave on three months' notice. To secure a minimum term for both sides, choose the mutual notice waiver of up to four years in this lease.
- How high may a rent deposit be in Germany, and must it be paid at once?
- At most three months' rent, not counting service charges shown as a flat rate or advance. The tenant may pay it in three equal monthly instalments, the first at the start of the tenancy. The landlord keeps it apart from their own assets at the usual savings rate, and the interest belongs to the tenant (§ 551 BGB). Until the landlord names such an account, the tenant may hold the payment back (BGH VIII ZR 98/10). The law sets no fixed date for its return.
- May a German lease make the tenant responsible for decorating?
- Only if the flat is handed over renovated at the start, or the tenant receives fair compensation. For a flat let unrenovated, shifting the decorating onto the tenant in a standard-form lease is void, as are rigid intervals and clauses charging a share of the cost on moving out (BGH VIII ZR 185/14). This lease therefore offers two versions only: decorating stays with the landlord, or the flat is handed over freshly renovated and the tenant redecorates as wear requires, without fixed intervals.
- What must a German landlord disclose about the rent cap before the lease is signed?
- Where a Land ordinance switches on the Mietpreisbremse, the rent at the start may exceed the local comparative rent by at most ten per cent (§ 556d BGB); the Länder may do so until 31 December 2029. A landlord who relies on an exception for a higher rent — the previous tenant's rent, modernisation in the last three years, first use and letting after 1 October 2014, or the first letting after comprehensive modernisation — must tell the tenant unasked, in text form, before the tenant signs (§ 556g(1a) BGB), best in a separate document beforehand.
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.
Related documents
- Landlord's confirmation of moving in or out (Germany)
The written confirmation a person moving in needs to register their address in Germany. Under § 19 of the Federal Registration Act (BMG), the housing provider (Wohnungsgeber) — the landlord, a main tenant who sublets, or the property manager acting for them — must give it within the two weeks allowed for registering. It contains what the Act requires: the provider's name and address, the owner's name if someone else owns the flat, moving in or out with the date, the flat's address and the names of everyone registering. In German, ready to print, sign and hand over.
- Letter demanding the return of a rental deposit (Germany)
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.
- Request for the landlord's permission to sublet (Germany)
The letter a tenant in Germany sends to ask the landlord's permission to sublet a room or the whole flat — without it the tenant may not let anyone else use the flat (§ 540 of the German Civil Code, BGB). It names the rooms, the period and the subtenant with date of birth and address, explains the interest that arose after the lease was signed, relies for part of the flat on the claim to permission under § 553 BGB, and points to the special right to give notice if permission is refused. Letting to holiday guests is a separate choice, because ordinary permission does not cover it. In German, to print, sign and send.
- Sublease of a room in a shared flat (Germany)
The agreement by which the main tenant of a flat in Germany sublets a room in the shared flat (WG): the room and shared use of kitchen and bathroom, rent with a flat-rate charge for utilities, the deposit under § 551 of the German Civil Code (BGB), house rules and notice. It records the landlord's permission to sublet (§ 540 BGB) and sets the notice period by whether the room is furnished and the main tenant lives in the flat — then notice by the 15th takes effect at the end of that month. Open-ended or with an end date, for a semester for instance. In German, to print and sign.
- Move-out handover record for a rented flat (Germany)
The record a landlord and tenant in Germany sign when the tenant hands back a rented flat: meter readings for the final bill, every key returned, the condition of each room, the damage the landlord points out beside the tenant's comments on it, anything agreed, and the tenant's new address and account for the deposit. The handover date matters: under § 548 of the German Civil Code (BGB), the landlord's claims for changes to or deterioration of the flat lapse six months after it is returned. In German, to print, fill in together and sign by both sides.
- Defect notice with rent reduction (Germany)
The letter a tenant in Germany uses to report a defect in the rented flat — mould, a heating failure, water damage, broken windows — and to claim a rent reduction. Reporting is a duty: without it the reduction is lost to the extent the landlord could have fixed the defect (§ 536c of the German Civil Code, BGB). The letter describes the defect, sets a deadline for repair, bases the reduction on the gross rent, lets the tenant choose between paying in full under reservation (the safer route) and paying less at once, and announces set-off under § 556b(2) BGB. In German, to print, sign and send.