Neuruppin Regional Court, 30 June 2023, Ref.: 4 T 38/23
Facts of the Case:
Action for eviction due to personal use ended by court settlement
The legal dispute presented here concerned the validity of a termination for personal use. As the legal dispute was ended by a court settlement and declaration of settlement, there was no judgement. However, the court ultimately decided that the defendants should be ordered to pay the full costs of the legal dispute. The defendants lodged an appeal against this decision.
Tenants lodged an appeal against the decision on costs
As part of the appeal proceedings, the regional court seised then had to decide whether a hearing of the party, a party hearing or a witness statement should have been carried out to prove personal use. Since such a necessity would have had an influence on the decision on costs.
Decision of the Neuruppin Regional Court:
Regional court made progonosis decision regarding the course of the trial
The Neuruppin Regional Court stated that, in the context of the decision on costs pursuant to Section 91a ZPO, a prognosis would be made as to how the proceedings relating to the main matter would have ended without the concurrent settlement and who would have had to bear the costs of the proceedings. This required a prognosis decision regarding the admissibility and merits of the action at the time of settlement.
The plaintiffs would have invoked personal use here. The existence of this should have been established by taking evidence. The prerequisite for a termination for personal use is that the plaintiff has a justified interest in the termination of the tenancy in accordance with Section 573 (1) sentence 1 BGB, which exists in accordance with Section 573 (2) no. 2 BGB if the plaintiff needs the rooms as accommodation for himself, his family members or members of his household.
In order to understand the landlord's desire for personal use, it would have been necessary to take evidence
When interpreting and applying Section 573 (2) No. 2 BGB, the courts would have to weigh up the interests of the legislator between the landlord's interest in acquiring the property and the tenant's interest in retaining the property in a way that takes into account the protection of property and balances the interests of both landlord and tenant in a proportionate manner. The landlord is protected by Art. 14 para. 1 sentence 1 GG in his freedom to use the flat himself or have it used by privileged relatives if he needs it. The courts are therefore not authorised to substitute their ideas of appropriate living for the landlord's (or his relatives') life plans. However, there are limits to the landlord's desire to acquire the property in order to safeguard the tenant's legitimate interests. In order for the notice of termination for personal use to be effective, it is therefore necessary that the landlord seriously pursues the desire for personal use and gives reasonable, comprehensible reasons and that the asserted personal use is not objectively unreasonable or abusive. Abuse of rights in this sense can be assumed if the landlord asserts far excessive housing requirements, the flat cannot fulfil the landlord's usage wishes or the landlord's housing requirements could be satisfied in another flat without significant compromises, which must be assessed by weighing up the interests of both parties on the basis of objective criteria, taking into account the specific circumstances of the individual case (BGH NJW 2015, 1590, para. 15 f.).
As the outcome of the taking of evidence remained open, the costs were divided equally
Such reasonable grounds had been substantiated by the plaintiffs by claiming that they wanted to use the terraced house as a home for themselves and their children, in particular because of the increased space requirements and because of the plaintiff's work from home. It was also claimed that the move was necessary due to the proximity to other family members.
The plaintiffs would have had to prove the assertion of personal use by witnesses during the trial. Since the result of such a witness examination is open, the parties would have to bear 1/2 of the costs each (also Jaspersen in BeckOK ZPO, Vorwerk / Wolf, 48th ed., as of 1 March 2023, Section 91a, para. 31.1).
Source: Neuruppin Regional Court
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