I was looking for apartments I received one contract which has better offer and later I received another offer which I denied. Now I received this email from the person whom I have denied. Is it legal? I didn’t signed anything anything even the person doesn’t know anything about me other than my full name and email address.
by rahull1616dass
36 comments
Did you sign a contract?
I wouldn’t pay because they’re unlikely to take this to court. But the fact is that if you agreed to take the apartment orally or in an email, that’s enough to be bound by contract. Signature on a piece of paper is not the only way to enter a contract.
It might be, but that depends on details we don’t know.
You can have a contract without actually signing anything, if you and the landlord did indeed agree and you confirmed, even just saying so, you take the apartment. In this case you might indeed be on the hook for actuall losses for the other side, like he says. If he can’t find another renter in time.
Will he actually enforce it? No idea, might not be worth all the trouble, and too risky to prove.
Herzlich
Don’t even dignify that with a response. You dodged a bullet. Complete child brain of a landlord
Herzlich
Probs not legal but it was most likely wirrten during an emotional moment. Cancelling 8 days before is a massive fucking dick move.
By the way, there’s also something called “Vorvertragliche Pflichten”. Even before there is a valid contract.
Whether something like that is legal or not doesn’t really matter to you, OP, in my opinion, because there’s nothing you can do at this point except wait and see. If he decides to go trough with this he needs to involve a lawyer and this is the point where you need to lawyer up yourself. Most likely for the landlord this is too much hassle for nothing and someone else takes the apartment anyway and you will never hear from him again.
YTA
I had a similar situation, but the other way round – my landlord and I agreed that I could leave the apartment earlier than legally required (earlier than the 3 months notice period). Then my landlord suddenly decided he needed the extra month of rent and told me I had to stay that last month and pay rent.
Very long story short: I went to court and won. On the basis of a WhatsApp conversation in which my landlord agreed to me leaving the apartment earlier. Because this constituted an “oral” contract.
So, do they have any written proof that you wanted to rent the apartment? E-Mail, WhatsApp, whatever? If yes: you might be in trouble. It will depend on how pissed off this person is and if they are willing to go to court.
AITA? Yes, you are.
I will offer him to find a tenant if i was in your place.
This depends a LOT on your conversation (Oral contracts are a thing)
If nothing was SAID and and signed, you have no valid contract, and you can back out. You might have given the LL the impression that you will take it.
If he offered it to you and you told him you take it, this is a contract in the sense of German law. No written form even needed.
You are bound to this contract even if nothing is written.
German law gives 3 months to end a lease, he can definitely sue you for those 3 months.
Yes, he can do that. A verbal agreement is still an agreement. Some landlords will even tell YOU to find a replacement to avoid losses, the fact that he’s willing to look himself is already nicer than most landlords.
Canceling 8 days before is… a dick move. If he wanted he could screw you over there, so good luck, from experience though, most landlords won’t do anything about it – too much hassle.
However, canceling other tenants before having a written contract is stupid of the landlord to do – that’s a mistake he won’t make twice.
Did you sign a contract? No? Then f* him and let him cry. Is he german? Awesome, cause german landlords can be the worst type of people in the world.
“Wow I wonder why landlords are reluctant to lease to auslanders?”
Unless you signed a contract probably not even though an oral agreement is considered a contract too. Better contact a lawyer
It kinda seems like you screwed him a bit
It depends.
Generally, contracts in germany can be sealed by word, or the proverbial handshake, as well and don’t always require a written confirmation to be legally binding. In such cases a written contract that follows is more of a confirmative action adding all terms and conditions to a contract that has already been sealed verbally. It can be argued that you already aggreed to the contract verbally and you were send the paperwork to confirm this agreement in writing, and that you would have only been able to step back from this contract adhering to the legal requirements of doing so within the terms and conditions in this contract. Many contracts legally allow stepping back, but also demand compensation if it means the landlord will loose out on rent payments due to that.
A landlord generally has the right to demand compensation if they experience loss due to you stepping back, or moving out before a contract allows you to. It’s also the same if the landlord denied other interested parties on accounts that he already closed on the contract with you verbally and expected you to start paying rent on the agreed upon time. If your stepping back from the contract means he now may not be able to fill the place with other renters in time to not miss out on the rent payment you would have started with, he can demand compensation from you until he finds renters. You after all are the one who broke the verbal contract by stepping back.
Usually cases like this are somewhat of an issue since often it’s your word against theirs, but if the landlord has enough evidence in from of mails or texts he has a relatively good case to bill you not only the missed out rent but the legal costs of demanding the payment via lawyer as well.
When I applied for a job in Germany, my future office was quite vague with my interview results. They gave some indirect indications from the emails that they would give me an offer, but whenever I asked about the clear status, they kept giving me vague answers that something is moving to the right direction yet somehow they did not (or cannot?) say anything.
Later I heard that it is because in Germany, the companies here are very careful with that. They do not want to make a mistake in legal departments that may cause them to get sued in court. So it means any job offer from German companies are most likely would not be suddenly rescinded. Such thing may happened in other countries, but not in Germany.
In short, probably you would need to prepare if the apartment owner did sue you to the courts.
nah you are an asshole though
Idk if he can get you legally but YTA
If you have actually agreed to taking the apartment they might be able to do that. But verbal contracts are quite iffy when there’s no witnesses involved, because then it’s just one word against the other. So unless they have it via e-mail or on paper enforcing it may be difficult.
I’m with the landlord here. 🤗
so you get the good offer before this one(the worse offer)? what exactly did you say to this landlord? we need a proper detailed timeline
What an Ahole. That was such a dick move.
You’re saying you already had an offer which was better than this, and somehow LATER you denied this person, but at the same time promised them to move in? How does that work out? Did you tell them to move in or not? Cause this person is acting like you had an agreement for a WHILE and out of nowhere you’re cancelling.
If you actually confirmed (verbally or in writing) you will be fully respnsible for the costs according to the term of the lease. If nothing is defined it is 3-month (mindest mietdauer).
So think twice if you think it’s ok to confirm multiple appartments.
As comming from the future landlord it seems that along any time of the way you confirmed to accept the lease and take the appartment (if it’s only in your head to “save the option”, you are still legally bound to the lease).
Even if you just wrote “Hey I won’t take the apartment” you fully agreed to take it!
-> The correct wording on your side must have been “Sorry i’m not interested in your offer” thus a contract never got established.
As a landlord myself, i inform possible tenants about this and these “short term desicion makers who keep all the options to themselves” will pay dearly. If you ever agreed along the way (verbally or in writing to the lease) I’d sue you for every penny and additional work to get new tenants. The only way out is that you find a replacement tenant or pay me to find replacement tenants oooor you pay for the damage (missed rent).
Good luck and perhaps you learn something for the future
Don’t know if this is legal. I had once been on the other side of the situation. This so-called person agreed to take the apartment, I called the landlord and informed him about this person, and my rental contract in the new place was about to start by the 1st of the next month. I forwarded the rental documents a week back to the so called person for signing and taking up the contract. I had been following up to this person as I haven’t recieved any response.
Just two days before the moving date the person said, I’m sorry I can’t take the apartment. When I confronted the person, the person said, My, old Vermieter did not accept to change my apartment as my contact is for a fixed amount of time, which was full BS, as I am completely sure that the person mentioned that their contract was about to end by that month end during the Besichtigungstermin.
THAT PERSON RUINED MY “MOVING IN” MY NEW APARTMENT. I ended up paying the entire month rent as I only could find the next Renter after a month later. I was an Ausländer student at that time, it was so difficult financially and mentally to process this. This person was not ready to pay even at least half the rent as they hadn’t signed anything. Technically it is true, but morally and ethically, i don’t know what to say to this.
If this person could have thought that the other person would get affected based on their decision, or at least inform me a few days earlier that they’re not gonna take this apartment, I might have gladly found another person within time.
Legal? Maybe not if there’s no written contract, but verbal agreement was still made although difficult to prove.
But was it a dick move by OP? 100%
A spoken contract is also valid if the evidence is there
You out of luck op. You going to have to pay rent for at least 2 months
When does he want you to cancel then? If 8 days was the earliest point in time you knew/could tell him that, I don’t see the problem. In Germany we say: “Scheiße gelaufen”
As long as no contrect is signed or the landlord has no withnesses to prove you agreed to rent (verbal agreement is legal) you should be fine. BUT did this landlord allready put work into prepairing paperwork for you and so on? It could be possible to sue you for whatever the work and care he put into is worth.