I got into legal trouble regarding my apartment’s garden. Currently, I am reworking it due to bad grass quality, loads of stones, and loads of weeds which were not aesthetically pleasing. It was essentially in dire need of care. We loosened and turned the soil, removed the weeds and stones, and reseeded it (mid-march). As of today, the garden is actually growing nicely again, and you can see the before and after in the attached pictures. There is still some weeds though. I didn't ask for permission before starting the project. In retrospect, I wish I did. Through the process, someone snitched on me with taking pictures of the garden after reworking it, and my letting agency has sent me this email:
“bei einer Begehung der Anlage durch unseren Landschaftsarchitekten ist aufgefallen, dass die von Ihnen angemietete Gartenfläche nicht im übergebenen Zustand ist. Wir bitten Sie diesbezüglich um Stellungnahme bis zum 19.03.2025, was Ihrerseits für die Gartenfläche vorgesehen ist. Zudem fordern wir Sie auf, die Gartenfläche der benachbarten Ladeneinheit wieder in den Zustand zu versetzen, der gleichwertig mit dem Zustand vor Ihrem Eingriff ist. Diese Fläche wurde nicht von Ihnen angemietet.”
I had some doubts, since the contract states I do rent the garden: “Vermietet wird im Haus […] folgende Räume: Die Wohnung im Vorderhaus Erdgeschoß links bestehend aus 3 Zimmer(n), 1 Küche, […] 1 Terrasse, 1 Gartenanteil zum Zwecke der Benützung als Wohnung”
The letting agency has sent us this email today, notifying us a landscaper will be hired and the bill will be passed onto us: “Der Vermieter […] hat den Entschluss gefasst, einen Gartenbauer zur Wiederherstellung der Garten-Allgemeinfläche, die Sie unerlaubterweise beseitigt haben, zu beauftragen. Die Kosten werden wir an Sie weiterbelasten.” This is the dilemma I’m faced with now. I'm considering talking to a Mieterverein (recommendations appreciated in west Munich!) or to my Rechtschutz since I'm insured with Allianz. On the contract, it states the following about modifications to rented areas:
(1) Maßnahmen des Vermieters, die zur Erhaltung des Hauses, der Mieträume oder zur Gefahrenabwehr notwendig oder zweckmäßig sind, hat der Mieter zu dulden. Er darf deren Durchführung nicht behindern.
(2) Bauliche oder sonstige, den vertragsgemäßen Gebrauch überschreitende Veränderungen innerhalb der Mieträume oder an den darin befindlichen Einrichtungen und Anlagen darf der Mieter ohne Einwilligung des Vermieters nicht vornehmen. § 554 Abs. 1 BGB bleibt unberührt.
– “Bauliche Veränderungen”: I didn’t build anything, as in, no structural changes took place.
– “überschreitende Veränderungen”: I think my actions fall under normal maintenance or care, not a 'change beyond normal use'. I'm generally improving it, not destoying it. I was under the impression that my improvement was well within what a tenant might reasonably do in a private garden, especially since no damage was caused, and it’s growing nicely now.
Hiring a landscape architect in my view is unnecessary and almost a form of bullying, and should not be charged to me. In fact, the condition will be improved relative to the old condition, but naturally, grass takes time to grow. One thing I'm curious about is I don't even know what the architect will do to our garden to make it 'better' at this point, since the garden is set up for success and only needs time and watering to flourish. I've been watering the garden every day to make sure it does well. I'm already scared of the bill coming our way.
What is your view on this, and what do you suggest I do next? I am happy to hear all types of feedback please. Wishing you all a beautiful weekend.
by zaid394
7 comments
Contact your Mieterverein (hopefully you joined one)
They seem to mention you did modifications to an adjacent garden as well?
Also, do you have pictures of the state of the garden when you entered the rental contract? That would help tremendously
„1 Gartenanteil zum Zwecke der Benützung als Wohnung“ doesn‘t mean that it‘s what you rented. It just means you can use it – like a community garden.
You aren‘t allowed to do garden work at a community garden without getting permission.
Additional info I forgot to mention: Throughout the communications among myself and the agency, I did ask multiple times about clarity regarding the “gleichwertiger Zustand” and was ignored on all 3 emails.
Is the nighttime photo afterwards? If so, I think you actually didn’t do a very good job, sorry. This looks like it’s mainly weeds and I personally don’t see any new grass, but mostly sparse remainders of the old grass. Did you buy and seed RSM 2.1? Or some other sort of grass?
They also notified you that you “reworked” a part of the garden that wasn’t yours but belongs to the shop next door. Go to Mieterschutzbund asap.
Are you sure you fully understand the demands and issues? Have you talked to them about it? I’m confused about their quote.
>“bei einer Begehung der Anlage durch unseren Landschaftsarchitekten ist aufgefallen, dass die von Ihnen angemietete Gartenfläche nicht im übergebenen Zustand ist. Wir bitten Sie diesbezüglich um Stellungnahme bis zum 19.03.2025, was Ihrerseits für die Gartenfläche vorgesehen ist.
Basically “We noticed that the **area of the garden that you rented** (so, specifically a subset of it!) has been altered. Please tell us what you plan on doing **with that area**.”
Now the important part:
>Zudem fordern wir Sie auf, die Gartenfläche der benachbarten Ladeneinheit wieder in den Zustand zu versetzen, der gleichwertig mit dem Zustand vor Ihrem Eingriff ist. Diese Fläche wurde nicht von Ihnen angemietet.”
Basically “Additionally, we demand of you to restore **the area of the garden of the adjacent Ladeneinheit** (so, specifically NOT YOUR AREA OF THE GARDEN) to its former status, as you have not rented that one.”!
Are you really sure all of it was YOUR garden plot? This sounds like it was supposed to be divided and you tore apart the plot that the neighbor has rented.
I understand you received two emails. Didn’t you respond to the first one, explaining that you actually took care of the mess they gave you? I would have guessed you sent them the “before” picture, and maybe even a copy of the bill for the grass seed and fertilizer in response of the first email?
It sounds like there might just be a misunderstanding between you and your Hausverwaltung. Give them a call as soon as possible and clear it up via phone.
On a personal note, I’m not a fan of the “before” *or* the “after”—both looked pretty rough. Wishing you luck with that grass!
I don’t have a solution to you, just letting you know you are not alone. We own our ground floor apartment with a little terrace and garden, where we own the terrace, but the garden is “special use” meaning we don’t technically own it, but responsible for maintaining it.
When the construction was complete, the company planted some dogshit hedge around the perimeter of the garden, imagine ~1m sticks with two leaves on average, that we couldn’t keep alive no matter what we did (later turned out that the soil is mostly composed of construction waste), and neither could our neighbors. So after two years, we looked at our contract which said we have to maintain the hedge and replace it if it died – great, we hired a landscaper to replace the shitty hedge with pretty nice thujas of about 1,5m tall. Within two months we got the email from the hausverwaltung that we have to restore the hedge to its original state, because the thujas are not fitting the general optics of the gardens… No shit, all the other hedge is pretty much dead. We asked why? Nowhere in the contract it is stated we have to replace the dead ones with exactly same type of hedge. After about 3 months of back and forth we decided to give up, replanted the hedge with the original type, and we replanted the thujas in containers so they can’t say anything about it anymore.
When we called back the gardener to replant the thujas, he told us he has 2 other clients who had the same problem and they had to revert the work he had done.
I don’t really understand this, gives me major HOA vibes. They had no problem with the dead hedge because all other hedge was dead, but once we fixed up ours, suddenly it is intolerable. Mind you, no neighbor had to fix their dead hedge (yet), for whatever reason.
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