Hi, im a student in Darmstadt and here it is widely known that finding a place to stay is a nightmare. I have been looking for a place for 3 months now and been staying in a friend’s place since 1st October. I am pretty desperate and Studentenwohnheim isnt showing promises.
Recently i found this place for cheap in WG Gesucht and the pictures are really nice (for its price of 345e). After 6 days to my surprise the Hauptmieter contacted me back! ive not gotten a response for a whole month. I went there and to my surprise the living place is almost unlivable.
The hauptmieter ask me to pay the kaution and sign a contract by this week, for he needed the money to start fixing the place. he promises a lot of things such as changing everything that is “wrong” and will finish doing so by november. he said that these stuff are from when the attic is no longer his and he needed to bring everything out (inside the Wohnung). he said its a problem because the house owner change in 2020. he also said that the new owner is a greedy one and is asking him for money he and a company calculated strom/wasser/gas and they said he owed him 5k euros for 2020-2023. the hauptmieter denied this and told me this was wrong calculation, its calculated as if theres 5 people instead only 3 was living there(?) i dont know if it can be this case but he isnt going to pay and he has the machine to calculate how much they used and he calculated that he paid enough(?)
The silverlining is that he sounds like a nice guy and is very understanding. he said that i can write on the contract anything i would like (ofc if both parties agree), he agreed that i can write “If the state of the house by November is not to satisfaction and not livable, I can terminate the contract and get my Kaution money back”. im not sure how the german rule is with Untermieter but the contract he showed me is very different from the contract i got living in a WG. it only states that i am an untermiete of his and it doesnt state anything about the price and contains of the room/ what do i get in the wohnung/ how long the contract last for/ if the place must be livable for me to pay the rent/ nor a “Sonstiges” place we can write additional agreements.
The hauptmieter is currently poor, havent bathed in months, the insurance company demanded 600e by the middle of october and his focus is currently his apartment in Greece, quote “If my apartment in Greece is sold or rented, I will get the money to further fix this (Wohnung) place and if you send me the kaution money it will help me and also motivate me to fix stuff because when the contract is made, i must hurry and fix the place”. He was a student but didnt graduate for personal reasons. I came Thursday last week, he told me to come see the progress today but there was ZERO progress
he said he was sitting in front of his computer waiting for calls for his apartment in Greece. Im going to go back on Friday to finally give my decision.
I have really fixed feelings for this but what i need most help is with the legal stuff and contract. Yes, I need the contract for city registration and yes i can terminate the contract legaly after 3 months after notice. but i need ur opinion, what do you think about this? could this be a scam? an empty promise? or am i just straight up stupid for even thinking about taking the room.
by cihcken
4 comments
I don’t think it’s a scam per se, but I see dozens of red flags.
I don’t think you will see your kaution ever again. And I don’t think anything in the flat will change. If you can’t live with the state it is in now, just say no.
Do not send him any money.
The Kaution is *not* to be used to “help him”, or to “motivate him”, or to pay for “fixing stuff”.
The Kaution is your property, it’s just being kept by your landlord. They aren’t allowed to spend that money, and it needs to be kept separate from their assets so it won’t be seized by anyone with claims against them.
Does any of what you describe sound as if he would ever under any circumstances be able to return the Kaution?
That you even entertain the thought to get dragged into a contract with someone who may lose power, water and heating for outstanding bills and only promises to make the place liveable is something. I don’t think it’s a scam I think it’s a clusterfuck you couldn’t stay as far away from as possible.
Looks like a movie, to broke to be a real Messi. Get something else. Good luck.