Termination due to rent arrears

If a landlord terminates a lease due to unpaid rent, the tenant cannot argue in court that he or she had transferred a partial payment on the day the notice of termination was issued.
A stubborn tenant refused to accept a district court’s decision ordering him to vacate a commercial space and return it to the landlord. He appealed the ruling, prompting the Berlin Court of Appeal to hear the case. The landlord issued several notices of termination throughout the entire period leading up to the decision, none of which could persuade the tenant to vacate.

Partial payment insufficient

The tenant was repeatedly in arrears on the monthly rent of €1,217.32. The landlord therefore issued a termination without notice in two consecutive years. At the time the notices of termination were served, the tenant was in arrears on two months’ rent in each instance. Regarding the termination issued last year, the tenant claimed that he had settled the outstanding payments before the notice of termination was received. In reality, he had transferred slightly more than one month’s rent on the very day the notice was issued, and the remainder just under a week later. The court ruled that the notices of termination were valid. This would not have been the case only if the outstanding rent payments had been settled in full before the notice was received.

Conclusion: An interim partial payment does not affect the validity of a termination without notice, as long as the outstanding amount is no longer merely a trivial sum.