Since 1 November 2015, landlords renting out residential space in Germany are (again) obliged to participate in the registration as well as deregistration of the tenant with the registration office. Breaches in this regard can be punished with fines.

The legislator has reintroduced the landlord’s participation in the obligation to register. Pursuant to Section 19 Federal Registration Act (Bundesmeldegesetz, BMG), the landlord has to confirm the following information to the tenant:

• Name and address of the person providing the apartment,
• type of process which is subject to a registration including move-in date or move-out date,
• address of the apartment as well as
• names of the persons who are subject to an obligation to register.

The landlord must provide the tenant with the certificate within two weeks. If the landlord does not fulfil this obligation, this can be expensive. The simple fines amount to a maximum of EUR 1,000. It gets even more expensive for accommodation certificates: In this case, fines of up to EUR 50,000 may be imposed.

Johannes Schuhmann, Frankfurt am Main