Apartment rental sublet without landlord approval

Hi everyone,

I am currently living in a flat that I am subletting.
When I signed the lease, the tenant told me that the landlady had authorised him to sublet the flat for 6 months. I was desperate to find a flat and trusted the guy without checking anything(big mistake!!). Some days after moving in, the landlady came and told us that she had not allowed him to rent the flat. The guy actually asked her a month before and she said no! She became suspicious that he had gone ahead with his project when a girl called her to tell her that the guy was threatening her. Actually a week before we visited the flat, this girl signed the contract but decided not to take it. She told it to him and he started threatening her by email, to sue her etc... It was quite scary, actually scary enough that the girl found the landlady's number and called her up. Well for us it was too late we had signed the contract for 6 months.
The landlady gave him notice to leave but he ignored it. We agreed with the landlady that we would stay in the flat and that she would make a lease with us.Problem is she gave him notice orally.
In the meantime he told us that he wouldn't come back. Than he said that he might come back but that we could buy some of his furniture ( outragous price!!). Then he said that he could prolonged the contract for 2 months but that we had to buy his furniture. We refused and he finally prolonged the contract till end of this month. The landlady gave him a written notice at the beginning of December. So we stayed in the flat and haven't heard from him. However he called the landlady today and said that he would come back!! He hasn't called us yet and we don't want to give up the flat but I am wondering if we have the right (legally) to stay.
The guy is weird and I am already scared of what he might do!!!

Any advise welcome!!

Thanks in advance!!

Woah, that post could perhaps be edited a bit, but anyway, I think the best thing is to get some professional advice from the Mieterverein. You'll need to pay a bit and if your German's not so hot then you'll need a bilingual friend, but your situation sounds pretty complicated so this would be the best place to get accurate, impartial advice.

There shouldn't be a big problem. He tried to rent the flat to you with the clear disapproval of the landlady. She should've cancelled his contract at that very point (cause it's her right by law in such a case) and instead of him taken you in. Just tell the landlady she should cancel his contract and that's it. What did she write to him? From what date to what date did you rent the flat? When did he tell you he's coming back and then "prolongued" your contract for how long? What kind of contract did you sign with him?

It's an untermietvertrag. She gave him notice on the 1rst December. Gave him 3 months notice.
We started renting the flat on the 1 rst July for 6 months, then he prolonged the contract for 2 more months at the end of December.
He actually called this evening and informed us of his intention to come back, he said that he may prolonge the lease until end of March and wants to meet us next week. To be honnest I find this meeting a bit dodgy! He does not live in Munich so why does he want to meet us at home when we could talk on the phone ?

Get the landlady to have the locks changed! Demand it!

I already changed the locks myself but I still don't feel safe!!

Tell him that you will not communicate with him. If he has questions concerning the contrat or apartment that he should discuss with the landlord. Only listen to what the landlord says. I assume since you are living there currently you have a lot of rights. But do not discuss anything with him, there is no legal reasons why you should.

True. Don't deal with him, esp. if he acts angry. He blatantly broke her rules and now has to suffer the consequences- not at your hands but at the landlady's hands. Let her deal with him and listen to her only and agree with what ever she says. His lease would have a clause in it about her informing him to get out. Even if he broke the rules it might still be up to the landlady's dicretion.

Regarding the furniture, set it outside the door if possible and inform him (via landlady) to come collect it. Make a trip to Ikea, Tchibo.de or the forsale section of TT and replace it all ASAP, provided she agrees you should stay and have your own lease. Keep the police number handy and make sure that you and the landlady are on the same page so that there won't be added confusion when the boys in green show up.

Or you could always find another place.

Good luck.

(Get cheap furniture first for emergency purposes only and then sell it for pennies and get some real stuff in a couple of months when the dust settles.)

This guy sounds like a bully, thug, hoodlum..whatever word you prefer. He could simply want his place back but you make that seem doubtful.

In his pea brain he *might* imagine that he can make money from you, either by someway related to the original contract or charging you for "damages" done to his furniture, or "selling" his furniture to you at exorbidant prices.

In either case you've gotten good advice above and I think you should definitely:

1. Consult with the Mieterverein, linked above. Its most definitely worth knowing your rights and obligations are in this situation. Your story is a bit confusing, it might help if you write out a timeline of events. He said/she said conversations are often tough for 3rd party people to follow, especially if the person telling the story is upset.

2. If you don't want to buy the furniture, take photos of furniture to prove they are in good condition. Make sure you have a date stamp on it, to show that the photos are recent.

3. As you've said, he's already frightened one person off and now you're scared of him, so do *not* meet with this person alone. Keep track of how often he calls and if he shows up don't open the door. If you are truly afraid, post the number for emergency help near your phone, or programme it in. Its easy enough to forget the number if you're sincereley afraid.

4. Last but not least, Profundo's right...perhaps you should really consider finding another place to live as soon as possible under your proper contract. I personally would rather be bothered by moving my clothes and myself than deal with dodgy assholes, questionable contracts, and feel frightened coming and going from my own home.

Good luck to you and post up to let us know how it turns out.

jml

Thanks a lot for your advices!!!

I'll keep you guys posted!

Hi everyone,

after months of problems, everythink is now sorted out!!!
We told the (now) previous tenant that we would not give up the flat and that he could file a law suit if he wanted to. The landlady fought with us all the way through!!
So finally he gave up!!!
We were quite lucky.

Anyway, I am happy that it is now over and please please be careful not to sign any sublet contract without approval of the landlord!!!