Berlin, June 4, 2020 – Greenberg Traurig Germany and German law firm Redeker yesterday filed 12 constitutional complaints by Berlin landlords with the Federal Supreme Court in Karlsruhe, Germany. These complaints are directed against the State Law on Limiting Rent Levels in the Housing Sector in Berlin (MietenWoG), commonly known as the "Berlin Rent Price Cap" (Berliner Mietendeckel), which came into force at the end of February 2020.
The proceedings, which are jointly led by Christian Schede, Greenberg Traurig, and Ulrich Karpenstein, Redeker, is intended to serve as a model proceeding for many thousands of comparable cases of owners and landlords of privately owned and financed housing stock in Berlin. The plaintiffs are a representative selection of private owners of single (also furnished) apartments, multi-family apartment buildings as well as portfolios with several hundred apartments in various locations and market segments across Berlin. They stand for small and medium-sized private landlords that hold around 1 million of the total of 1.5 million tenancies in private residential portfolios in Berlin.
The plaintiffs seek the annulment of the rent price cap law, based on the lack of legislative competence of the State of Berlin, the disproportionate infringement of the landlords' property rights and the violations of the constitutional prohibition of arbitrary rules. By means of the plaintiffs' individual cases it is demonstrated that the rent price cap law violates the constitutional law requirements set by the Federal Supreme Court. In many cases it even leads to the opposite of what is intended: It renders the letting of apartments uneconomical, thwarts private pension schemes and provides well-off tenants with unexpected advantages - and all this without making a sustainable contribution to the creation and maintenance of adequate housing for lower- and middle-income groups.
Background:
For this model proceeding, Greenberg Traurig and Redeker have combined the complementing expertise of their teams of attorneys and together they have taken the lead for the constitutional complaints. The core team consists of Christian Schede and Johann-Frederik Schuldt for Greenberg Traurig and Ulrich Karpenstein and Matthias Kottmann for Redeker. For Greenberg Traurig, the litigation and administrative law experts Niklas Conrad, Christoph Enaux and Corinne Rüchardt as well as Bettina Gausing on the side of Redeker were also involved in the several months-long preparations.
About Greenberg Traurig, LLP: Greenberg Traurig, LLP (GT) has approximately 2200 attorneys in 41 locations in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. GT has been recognized for its philanthropic giving, diversity, and innovation, and is consistently among the largest firms in the U.S. on the Law360 400 and among the Top 20 on the Am Law Global 100. Web: http://www.gtlaw.com Twitter: @GT_Law.
The proceedings, which are jointly led by Christian Schede, Greenberg Traurig, and Ulrich Karpenstein, Redeker, is intended to serve as a model proceeding for many thousands of comparable cases of owners and landlords of privately owned and financed housing stock in Berlin. The plaintiffs are a representative selection of private owners of single (also furnished) apartments, multi-family apartment buildings as well as portfolios with several hundred apartments in various locations and market segments across Berlin. They stand for small and medium-sized private landlords that hold around 1 million of the total of 1.5 million tenancies in private residential portfolios in Berlin.
The plaintiffs seek the annulment of the rent price cap law, based on the lack of legislative competence of the State of Berlin, the disproportionate infringement of the landlords' property rights and the violations of the constitutional prohibition of arbitrary rules. By means of the plaintiffs' individual cases it is demonstrated that the rent price cap law violates the constitutional law requirements set by the Federal Supreme Court. In many cases it even leads to the opposite of what is intended: It renders the letting of apartments uneconomical, thwarts private pension schemes and provides well-off tenants with unexpected advantages - and all this without making a sustainable contribution to the creation and maintenance of adequate housing for lower- and middle-income groups.
Background:
For this model proceeding, Greenberg Traurig and Redeker have combined the complementing expertise of their teams of attorneys and together they have taken the lead for the constitutional complaints. The core team consists of Christian Schede and Johann-Frederik Schuldt for Greenberg Traurig and Ulrich Karpenstein and Matthias Kottmann for Redeker. For Greenberg Traurig, the litigation and administrative law experts Niklas Conrad, Christoph Enaux and Corinne Rüchardt as well as Bettina Gausing on the side of Redeker were also involved in the several months-long preparations.
About Greenberg Traurig, LLP: Greenberg Traurig, LLP (GT) has approximately 2200 attorneys in 41 locations in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. GT has been recognized for its philanthropic giving, diversity, and innovation, and is consistently among the largest firms in the U.S. on the Law360 400 and among the Top 20 on the Am Law Global 100. Web: http://www.gtlaw.com Twitter: @GT_Law.