I live in a WG with 4 other people. One of the rooms doesn’t have a window that opens, so the landlords have put up a note that says I can’t lock the door to my room since the escape route is through my room. See picture.

I see this as a severe privacy violation, is this even legal?

by legandaryhunter

9 comments

  1. I would assume that potentially risking a life by not having an escape route is more of a problem than privacy. And I also think that a sleeping room without a window is even more of a problem.

  2. I have no idea about the legality (I suspect they can’t disallow locking doors) but why does Zimmer 3 have to go through Zimmer 1 and not the closer Zimmer 2? Also, why doesn’t the window in Zimmer 1 open?

  3. So he could use every window and every room, thus no one should lock his door? Plus your landlord has no right to enter the living space, how will he ever know?

  4. I do wonder, why doesn’t room 3 evacuate through room 2 since it’s shorter?

    Anyway, become a member of your local Mieterschutzbund/Mieterverein/etc and tell them about this. To me the whole arrangement looks illegal.

  5. Isn’t it required in Germany that a window in a bedroom has to be able to be opened?

  6. In this case I believe it is legal. However, I also believe that (if not clear from the beginning) this is a significant downgrade of your room, so you could ask the landlord to reduce the rent (do not do this on your own). The only other option would be to move out.

  7. From what I (a layman) understand is in Germany you need to have 2 emergency exits (yellow arrow for primary exit and red arrows for secondary exits).

    Now, my guess is the secondary emergency exit for room 3 is through room 1 (because room 3 shares a window with room 2 which I assume would not count as secondary exit then?).

    This is just a guess. Yes, I’d also be annoyed af not being able to lock my door.

  8. Depending on how much you want to push for your right here, you could for example talk to the Mieterverein (they usually require a 12-24 month membership for them to consult and represent you, 60-100€ one time payment last time I checked) or a Mietrechtsanwalt (lawyer for rental issues), which might even be able to get free consultation from (Google: Beratungshilfe), to take legal actions. You would most likely need to inform your landlord that you checked and found this condition to be non binding and you won’t follow it from now on. If they complain about safety you could then probably inform them they need to install proper windows for the other room. (no idea if this is actually the case tho)

    They probably can’t kick you out even if they get pissed, or would have a hard time doing so, but you would probably have a pretty frosty relationship with them afterwards!

  9. Must be a huge apartment that evacuation route is through windows and not the front door.

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