OVG Berlin-Brandenburg is pioneering judgment on misuse of living space

OVG Berlin-Brandenburg is pioneering judgment on misuse of living space

The district mayor of Mitte, Stefanie Remlinger, recently informed about a pioneering fundamental judgment of the Higher Administrative Court of Berlin-Brandenburg (OVG) in the fight for living space. The district office Mitte has created legal clarity in the procedure (file number: OVG 5 B 5/22, etc.) in order to convert illegal holiday apartments into urgently needed rental apartments. The judgment now also enables owners who had already converted the living space into apartments before the exposure to refurbish law came into force and had previously rely on constitutional and building law.

The specific case dealt with an apartment house in Mitte with 37 apartments, for which the owner had requested a negative test from the district office Mitte in order to confirm that there is no misuse in the sense of the right of expansion. The district office rejected this and argued that the apartments were apartments that fell under the right of misuse as a living space worth protecting. Use as a holiday apartment would require approval by the district office after the statutory transition period.

After the Berlin Administrative Court dismissed the holiday apartment operator's lawsuit, this appealed before the OVG. The OVG decided in favor of the district office and rejected the appeal. The court found that the use as a holiday apartment was already inadmissible under the expansion of the refurbishment law, since it was a commercial use in a general residential area. The applicant could not rely on permanent existing protection. Housing and renting as a holiday apartment are two types of use that are subject to approval.

The district mayor Stefanie Remlinger welcomed the judgment as a success in the fight against the lack of living space and emphasized that the building law and the misuse ban of the districts are now finally able to fought the illegal rental of apartments retrospectively and to regain urgently needed living space for regular rental.

The misuse of misuse came into force in 2014 and is intended to ensure that living space is not misused and thus withdrawn from the rental market. In view of the housing shortage, the OVG also saw the law as a suitable basis for such cases and ruled that it does not violate the freedom of ownership, professional freedom or the general protection of trust in the Basic Law.

Overall, the judgment of the OVG in Berlin-Brandenburg is a milestone in the fight against the lack of affordable living space and illustrates the determination of the Mitte district office to regulate the use of living space for commercial purposes and to ensure the need for living space for the population.

| Information | Value |
| ————- | —————— |
| File number | OVG 5 B 5/22 and others |
| Date of Press Release | 16.02.2024 |
| Location | Middle, Berlin |
| Apartment Building | 37 apartments |
| Major referring ban law In force since 2014 |
| OVG judge Groundbreaking fundamental judgment |
| Contact person | District Mayor Stefanie Remlinger |

Source: www.berlin.de