Equally important for tenants and landlords

The confirmation of freedom from rent arrears is a simple form used by a landlord to certify that a tenant has paid their rent regularly and on time in the past. There are various forms and sample PDFs for the certificate of freedom from rent arrears, which you can find on numerous relevant websites on the Internet. However, the Federal Court of Justice ruled several years ago that tenants have no legal right to a landlord’s certificate of freedom from rent arrears. Nevertheless, it still happens regularly that landlords request a certificate of freedom from rent arrears. Whether a landlord is allowed to charge for issuing such a certificate is not clearly regulated by law. However, as the service is not mandatory, this may well be permissible.

Proof that you are free of rent arrears serves to confirm to a potential new landlord that you have an impeccable payment history. This gives the landlord a helpful indication of whether there is a risk of non-payment. Tenants, in turn, have an uncomplicated means of proving their creditworthiness and trustworthiness. However, as there is no legal entitlement to the certificate, landlords must also offer alternatives. These include, for example, the prospective tenant’s payslips. As a landlord, you may only accept the letter once a concrete interest in an apartment has been expressed, as information of this kind at an earlier point in time is not considered sufficiently relevant from a data protection perspective. This means that a request to submit proof of freedom from rent arrears at the first appointment is not permitted. If landlords nevertheless receive such a confirmation beforehand, it should be deleted without request and such documents should only be accepted after a concrete interest has been expressed. In this way, you avoid putting other applicants at a disadvantage.

As there is no legal entitlement, there are no legal requirements regarding the required content of the form. The certificate of freedom from rent arrears usually contains information on the name, address and contact details of the landlord or property management company and the tenant, as well as a limitation of the rental period. It must also state whether the termination was ordinary or extraordinary, i.e. without notice. There is also a passage confirming that the rent has been paid in accordance with the contract. If there are rent debts, they must be stated in full, including repayment agreements. With his signature, the landlord confirms his details in a legally valid manner. The place and date must also be attached.

If a confirmation of no rental debts is filled out completely and correctly, you as the landlord have a useful indication of a positive payment history and a good credit rating of the prospective tenant. As a rule, information from the previous landlord can be considered trustworthy. However, the landlord is not obliged to provide the tenant with written proof that they are free of rent arrears. In addition, it is not possible to issue a certificate of freedom from rent arrears for a property if the applicant has not previously lived in rented accommodation. It is therefore advisable not only to apply for a rent-free certificate, but also to accept alternative confirmations. This can be a credit check, for example via a Schufa report, wage and salary statements for the last three months, or simply a self-disclosure from the prospective tenant. As a safeguard against rental nomads, it can be helpful to consult relevant databases on the Internet in which affected landlords provide information about rental nomads.