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Germany proves that private renting can work better than it does in Britain
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2023
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As a German, it's hard to imagine that the German rental model is an improvement to anything. It's horrible. Private landlords honestly stuck even more than corporate ones. Lots of people who feel entitled to put whatever restrictions they want on tenants, regardless of the law. Racism/favorism are rampant, people are literally paying for appointments to just look at apartments and also to be favored in the selection process.
It's bad.
I Moved from Germany to the UK a little over a year ago.
The UK (at least London) is soooooooo much worse as far as renting goes. I rented a few places in Germany in a couple different cities and every place had some annoyances, but I just wasn't prepared for what a free-for-all shitshow it is in the UK.
Literally hundreds of people coming to viewings for a single place. Landlords can basically raise rents whenever they feel like it and force you out. The places are generally absolutely terrible quality with very little incentive to improve things. I had places trying to force 3+ year contracts with no break clause. I've never experienced so many colleagues constantly having issues with "the landlord raising rents by 30% and when we refused or tried to negotiate we got forced out". Then you have to scramble to find a place in a month.
They price everything based on number of bedrooms rather than size, so landlords are incentivized to subdivide flats into multiple units and minimise space. A 4-bed flat-share with no living room? Fairly standard, even for working professionals.
Plus, after you pay the extortionate rents the TENANT pays the taxes (council tax).
I encountered issues in Germany with renting (particularly when I first moved there) but the German situation would be a HUGE improvement for most of the UK