Landlords deciding which tenant to let to

Hi,

After a month of searching, I finalised an apartment in Nuremberg and receved confirmation from the agent that the apartment will be mine and I signed som epapers agreeing for the rentals and brokerage etc.

Today I called him up to enquire and he says that the landlord is out vacationing in Africa and will be back on the 17th. Then he is going to decide whether or not I can have the apartment. He says he will try his best to convince the landlors but the ultimate decision lies with the landlord himself.

Wanted to ask if any of you have heard from your experience of landlords refusing to let out their apartment to particular tenants or whether they have preferences for tenants etc. The problem is if he decides against giving it to me, then I would have to start the search all over again and there might not be enough time to shift in to an apartment by Oct 1st.

Thanks

Oh for sure they do. I have lost many apartments to the Landlords decision because they preferred to rent to single women instead, although I have a good paying, steady job and good rental history. You're asking this in Germany? Its not equal opportunity here remember

landlords can be a complete pain in the ass if they are a normal person, or they can be great. Our current land lords are great we met them for a drink they gave us the lease we signed it and moved in. Our old land lords who we sublet our old apartment with are slow at giving approval for tenants and reserve the right to refuse any one we want to put in the apartment, even though we have to pay the rent regardless of if our tenant pays us.

If the landlord is a large company they tend not care as long as you don't have 2 heads and you can pay the rent

It's not quite as simple as that though because tenants have a lot of rights in Germany , landlords HAVE to be very careful and picky about who they rent to.

Of course, a landlord can decide whom he accepts as a renter. When I moved out my former landlord rejected a nice (german) couple, because she felt the karma (or aura or whatever) was bad. Best you can do is keep on looking. Maybe youll find another place where the landlord is available before the 17th.

Single landlords are more picky than large landlord or especially companies as mentioned above.
Being a foreigner isn't necessarily a problem, they want a steady income.

We got out flat on 2 mediocre wages over a self-employed architecht couple.

So I guess the requirements would vary from landlord to landlord. Only if the estate agent would have taken the preferences from the landlord in the beginning and gets only such clients which fulfill the criteria, would save so many people so much trouble.

Have to be VERY careful doing that cos if there was an explicit discriminatory policy, someone might sue.
that's the problem with discrimination, can't often prove it.

I agree to an extent but if the agent says outright that the landlord prefers ... married couples working for MNCs or prefers people without pets or prefers Germans or Italians for whatever reason ... it would save the tenants the trouble of going to see the apartment and then getting rejected anyway.

The landlord could have authorized the agent, to make decisions in his name. He didnt - so I guess you could say that he is wasting your time. But there isnt any harm done, is there? You can still look for an appartement until the 17th and if you dont find one, there is still a chance you get this one. At least the agent will probably not try to find another potential renter.

Anti Diskrimiereungs Gesetz - law suit city.

We get 101 threads on TT mentioning people of non caucasian backgrounds not getting into nightclubs.
Everyone knows it is racism.
But as long as the bouncers say nothing more than "you are not coming in and I don't have to gvie a reason" you can't do anything about it.

Just starting down the road of trying to find a flat so this thread is interesting.

Even though my wife and I are separating ,and that's why I need somewhere, I've asked her to do the intitial contact.I think that way it's more likely that I can get a foot in the door that way. I remember last time we looked for somewhere there were times when people were clearly put off by the fact I was English and therefore not a local.

To be fair, there is no sign the OPs potential landlord is planning to discriminate anyone. He is just not there to make a decision.

Interesting comments. I was once refused entry in a bar citing the same reasons ... there's a private party and for members only. When I pointed out that others were going in, they said they were guests. Then I met a friend who is a local and he spoke to the bouncers and they agreed to let me in. Once I entered, I saw many staring at me as I was the only person of Asian descent.

I went in and then came back in a minute and told the bouncers that I was not interested in hanging out in this bar and that it sucked. They were quite amazed actually.

The ironic thing is that 2 of the 3 bouncers were black.

Ofcourse this has nothing to do with this thread and I am not suggesting that my potential landlord is anything like this ... just an experience worth sharing.

why don't you just look for another flat while he's away?
<baffled>

I understand what you're getting at. Its happened to us a couple of times. Its easy to say look for something else but its not always that easy to find something suitable and sometimes you think its all sorted out nicely and then they change their minds. You can't do much about it though. Just try and stay polite and start again. Frustrating though.

Wys

yeah, I've only been in my new flat for 6 weeks now, so I know what it's like as well
in my very recent experience estate agents are by their nature pathological liars, and everything they say should be taken with a v. generous pinch of salt
it's *never* all sorted until both parties have signed the contract
if we'd believed the estate agent for the first flat we saw that we liked then we wouldn't have ended up in this flat (which is far nicer, btw)
and if you're gonna be homeless on October 1st then you don't have any choice but to carry on looking - it's a classic case of a no-brainer, I'm afraid

The problem is because we have contracted with this relocation service and the agent refuses to show us more houses saying we will have to pay extra for that. This means for every extra house we see, we will have to pay from our pocket

Forget the agent, what does your contract say? Did you read it properly before signing? Btw, I've never heard of anything like it, having to pay extra for every house visited.

The contract says they will show me 8 houses. Now they say I have to pay extra for other every house

There's a lot of weird shit herem like paying commission to realtors when you're a tenant and renting places minus a kitchen. Expect the unexpected.

If those are the terms of your contract and you have already viewed eight houses, then I suppose the agent has a point.

I am generally an easy going guy and do not mind paying for any service .. however I hate it when people try to be rude and impolite. The lady (agent) showed me 8 houses, 5 of which were not within my specifications. Now I politely told her that the first couple of houses were not really what we discussed to which she turned aggressive ... kind of put me off.
Now I am on my own and even this new development of the landlord wanting to decide came much later from her. I tried calling up the real estate agents directly but most of them don't speak English.
Anyway I guess I have to keep at it.

Un less you are looking for something large and pricey, I think the 8-apartment rule seems reasonabl. The agent can't spend all his/her time showing 20 aprtments to some finickey renter for very little commission.

As a landlord myself I'm always looking for someone quiet, financially stable, and who will take care of the property. The notion of maintaining harmony with other inhabitants in the building is a definite issue. You have to go with a gut feeling sometimes on which potential renter will get along best with everyone else.

I've been appalled by Estate Agents here in Germany. They really just try to get the most possible money out of you for the least possible work. Blood-sucking leeches.

I met with one agent who, when he found out we had dogs, recommended that we lie to the flat owner (his customer!), and tell the owner that we were just looking after the dogs temporarily while a family member was in hospital, and then change our story later on. The difficult situation that would have left us in with the owner was, of course, not his problem.

Have you already given them money for their service? If not, I'd insist on them showing you more places. They'll probably acquiesce pretty quickly when they realise you're serious.

After the trouble I had in my last place, I will always take someone along as a witness when I meet with an agent or a landlord, and I recommend you do the same. If any agreements are made verbally, write them down yourself after the meeting, and if possible, post or email the agreement to the other party. You can always write "Just to make I've correctly understood what we agreed today, ..."

I have had the same issue with the real estate agent. I wanted to install a satellite dish and wanted to make sure the owner is ok with it. He told me to put in the balcony in such a way that no one can see it ... then there's no problem.
I told him wouldn't that make it illegal and clearly I was not interested in some clandestine activities ... to which he said 'everyone does it' and here in germany that's the norm.

I don't have an issue with the landlord choosing his tenant, I take Dan's point. However I sometimes feel I am stuck between my relocation agent and the real estate agent who kept telling me that I had to decide on the spot otherwise there's a long listof tenants ready to take it. Surprisingly, all the houses I saw are still available.

so have you signed a contract with this agency obliging you to take a flat from them?
if not, can't you get your employer to help you out in finding somewhere?
or try one of the big homeowners, they usually have people who speak decent english, by all accounts
in Munich it would be companies like Swiss Re, Munich Re (or MEAG, I think they're called now), Spaten brewery - people like that
there are probably some big companies in Nuremberg that own loads of rental property on the side, try them