Rent payment
February 12, 2010 | 30,00 EUR | answered by Bernhard Müller
Hello,
I rented premises for commercial purposes as of 01.02.2010.
After signing the lease agreement, it was communicated to me 2 days before the start of the lease that construction work was scheduled to take place right in front of this property.
The construction work is expected to last around 6 months.
The landlady has known since December that these construction works were planned, however, a start date of around early March was initially set.
According to the landlady, this start date was unexpectedly moved up.
I find it very strange that this decision was made so last minute, and construction work began on 01.02.2010.
Do I have any options for rent reduction, and if so, to what extent, considering that the construction work coincides with the opening of my business and may result in potential loss of customers due to difficult access to the street at the moment.
Thank you.
Dear Questioner,
In commercial lease agreements, it is permissible to exclude the right to rent reduction in the contract. Therefore, you would first need to check your contract to see if this has been done.
If this is not the case for you, you can generally reduce the rent.
The amount of the reduction depends on the individual case. It mainly depends on the impairments caused by the construction work. In general, the same percentages as for apartments should apply.
Here, the AG Weißwasser awarded a reduction of 50% due to construction noise in a judgment dated 18.04.1994 - 3 C 0701/93, WM 1994, p. 601, while in other cases only 20% were awarded. [LG Göttingen, judgment dated 15.01.1986 - 5 S 60/85, NJW 1986, p. 1112 = NJW-RR 1986, p. 44 = WM 1986, p. 114 (construction noise, dust, exhaust gases, etc. in immediate vicinity, 15m distance).
AG Köln, judgment dated 26.10.1982 - 212 C 210/82 (renovation work in the neighboring house);
AG Neukölln, MM 1994, p. 23 (construction work in the house, installation of intercom system, renewal of windows, drilling holes in the ceiling, noise and dust);
AG Regensburg, judgment dated 16.04.1991 - 4 C 275/91, WM 1992, p. 476]
One court even awarded only 3% for construction noise
Construction noise originating from a neighboring property and lasting longer. AG Tiergarten, GE 1991, p. 579 (Section 906 of the Civil Code is not relevant).
Therefore, at this time, I can only advise you to pay the rent with reservation for review and keep a record documenting as precisely as possible when which impairments are caused by the construction site. Only then can it be determined retroactively what percentage reduction is appropriate in your case.
For the fact that the street is difficult to access, resulting in a loss of customers, there are no universally applicable standard cases with fixed percentages, so it also depends on the individual case here. You could theoretically claim damages if you can prove that you were deceived by the landlord about the timing or duration of the construction work. However, you would need to prove how high the actual loss of profits incurred is. This may already fail in your case because you cannot provide comparable accounting periods for calculating the damage.
I hope that my answer was helpful to you.
Best regards
Bernhard Müller Attorney
