I'm a foreigner moving to Germany, trying to rent an apartment beforehand.
I met this landlord on a Facebook group.
And he showed me pictures of the apartment, alongside the address and details.
And after negotiation we signed this Contract.

Afterwards I saw a post of a person being scammed by the same "landlord", for an apartment that doesn't exist.

I haven't paid yet.

My question, is this contract legal and binding? (Provided that we don't know if the apartment even exists)

And are there any legal repercussions if I don't pay the deposit before viewing the apartment?

Lastly, I have provided him information like my phone number, email, and passport id..
How can I protect myself from Identity theft.

I realize that I've been more than naive in this dealing, I need your help and thanks in advance.

by classic_lit

35 comments

  1. SCAM

    Even if it was translated back to English, many sentences wouldn’t even make sense semantically.

  2. That is a fake contract. The spelling is atrocious. There are random words in the middle of the text, and there are lots of things that don’t belong in a rental contract.

    Edit: there’s some translation from another language involved, for instance with the “friedlicher Genuss” – that is “peaceful enjoyment” in English law, which is not a term we have here. The spelling etc. is too bad for full machine translation though. Possibly this thing went through multiple mutations, including some where it was typed off by hand by someone who knows no German.

    And most importantly: As soon as someone rents to you without having met you, and without you seeing the place, and they demand a payment, it’s a scam. Edit: That goes even if you get a contract that is fully in accordance with German law. If I was a scammer, I’d get a contract template online or even in a stationery shop, and I’d fill it out perfectly with fake information.

    The German flag is hilarious. We don’t do that here.

    Don’t pay. They may threaten you with legal consequences. There will not be any. Don’t pay.

    You can report to the police that scammers have a picture of your passport (I assume? “Passport id”, if by that you mean the number on the passport, cannot really be used for anything on its own). That way, you have some protection when the scammers use a picture of your passport to scam someone else.

  3. “Der Mieter wird die gemieteten Plätze in dem Staat nehmen, wo Sie sich am Tag seines Eingangs befinden Genuss”

    wtf?

    That’s not even a sentence…

    Edit: just to be clear, many things in that contract **sound** pretty standard but it’s completely unprofessional and screams ChatGPT.

  4. Never pay before actually seeing the apartment and verifying this is real. Fotos and Facebook scream scam.

  5. If you have to pay before viewing it’s a scam. By law the deposit is due three days after you move in.

  6. I didn’t even read the whole thing but the plethora of blatant grammatical mistakes in the first couple of rows alone tells me that this is a scam.

  7. Landlord has to show you appartment, not its photos. You also need to know an Energieeffizienzklasse.
    General rule:
    If you suspect it’s a scam you’re right.

  8. If you haven’t seen the appartement **in person** and if you have not met the landlord there – don’t bother. THey’ll ask you for money, get it, then ghost you. It is a scam.

    **DO NOT** send your passport. It will be used to scam other people.

  9. In terms of content, the contract seems fine in principle. However, it contains some very strange wording such as “Genuss” and “usw.” in relation to the additional costs, which makes the whole thing a little suspicious. Furthermore, this is not a standard rental agreement as found in Germany. Some sections that are normally always included are missing, such as the number of rooms, keys, and a list of additional costs. It’s all a bit strange, and my gut feeling tells me it’s a scam.

  10. > And are there any legal repercussions if I don’t pay the deposit before viewing the apartment?

    Therefore immediately obvious as scam.

  11. Just to add to the other comments: Even if the contract were in perfect German and a standard form, that in itself is meaningless if the whole apartment doesn’t exist and the “landlord” is a scammer who lied about everything, including their personal information.

    Like, I can show you pics or even have a video call and show you some apartment and draw up a perfect contract. That doesn’t mean I have am apartment in the location I claim or that I am willing or able to rent it to you. The moment you pay me the “deposit” or “1st month rent” I disappear from your life and all you have is a worthless piece of paper. What you gonna do with it? None of the information on it is real, apart from your name.

    ETA: I have to admit, though, if I wanted to scam people, never would I have gotten the idea to put the German flag on the contract. That is absolutely hilarious. Trust me, bro, look, there is even a flag!

  13. I think I paid my deposit the day I got my keys. So anything that requires pay before you physically step on the house is likely a scam.

    And contracts don’t usually have a big ass German flag

  14. The quality is hilarious, especially the flag. Importantly, no real landlord would rent to you without seeing the apartment first. You are best to get a short term rental for like a month for your arrival and go from there

  15. That’s not a contract, that’s a joke. It’s so bad it’s actually quite funny.

    > How can I protect myself from Identity theft.

    You can’t. Your information will be used to play landlord when scamming others, that’s just how this game works.

    Report everything you have to the police online: https://portal.onlinewache.polizei.de/de/ – that way at least you have evidence if someone comes after you as a scammer in the future.

    Book an airbnb for a month and search apartments here. Tenant protection laws in Germany are so strong that ***absolutely nobody*** will ever rent you a place without having met you face to face. Nobody. Ever.

  16. In all my years working at Jobcenter I’ve seen some weird rental agreement but thus one is the weirdest. Definitely a scam.

  17. The contract was clearly never read by anyone that is capable of speaking German.

    While it contains all normal parts in principle, the formulation is often close to incomprehensible and thus the number of formal mistakes with legal consequences may be high.

  18. Looks like the Nigerian prince is now renting out real estate in Germany too! I’m glad someone finally helped him get his money!

  20. Yes. … On page 2, I found, “Der Mieter wird die gemieteten Plätze in dem Staat nehmen, wo sie sich am Tag seines Eingangs befinden Genuss.”

    Sounds like a bad machine translation. “State” has been mistranslated as “Staat”, should have been “Zustand”. … And I can’t even imagine where the “Genuss” (enjoyment) at the end came from.

    Normally, as a landlord, you look for a (free) rental contract to download and do not translate any funny Chinese (?) stuff yourself.

  21. This is probably a scam, and if you’re still looking, I really recommend wunderflats. A bit more expensive, but really easy and never disappointed.

  23. It was obviously a scam when a saw the German flag on the contract

  24. Please dont use FB for something like that. It will always be a scam 100%. Nobody in Germany would offer a Flat on FB.

  26. Thanks, this is hilarious. Haven’t seen anyone point out the *widersprüchliche Bestandsaufnahme* yet, page 3. 🤣

  27. keep looking for another place – this is not it.

  29. You can’t sign one unless you’ve done some kind of viewing

  30. As someone who was in the same situation 3 months ago, do not ever sign a rental agreement without physically seeing the apartment. Do not pay a deposit without a valid lease and keys in your hand. You will absolutely get scammed if you try to find an apartment from outside Germany without presentation here.
    In my experience, legit German landlords will not lease you an apartment without meeting you first.

    In case it was not clear, yes this is a scam.

  31. Anything with a german flag that big or at all to be honest is very likely a scam.

  32. Find a temporary place. Cheap hotel or Airbnb, and come see apartments here yourself

  33. If the 7th word is already spelled wrong (lower case), it is fake/scam.

  34. @classic_lit you have the Right to Pay the Kaution in 3 seprate payments and not all at once

  35. Ok… It is fake… But some passages make it hilarously accurate!

    The stuff i like the most: §6

    **CONDITION OF THE PREMISES**

    At the beginning and at the end of the rental agreement, a contradictory inventory and an inventory of the furniture and household appliances shall be prepared in two (02) copies between the parties before the handover of the keys.

    You and your Landlard will not agree on the Übergabeprotokoll 😀

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