Starshollow

HI Emmbee, sorry to hear that...I'll check back with Paul right away. Mid- to end of September is always a very busy time in our line of business because many insurances can only be changed/switched in the new year if you give notice before the end of September. This leads to a massive short-term increase in inquiries as you can imagine. And then we sometimes need to line the clients up in order of priority/necessity and not in order of arrival. But you should have received a feedback/info nevertheless.   Talk soon, Cheerio    

I stand corrected, dear PandaMunich. You are right... sorry for that mistake.   Cheerio  

1. hire someone who receives a salary from you in excess of 451 EUR per month (Sozialversicherungspflichtiges Beschäftigungsverhältnis). Do that and you are home free, no requirement to contribute to public pension 2. you could also claim a deferral of the requirement for the first three years of being self-employed in Germany. However, that means you are on radar and they will get to you definitely after 3 years.   Staying in NI does not help you, because legally with what you wrote in the other thread, you are fully main resident of Germany and German rules and regulations apply to you. NI-contributions do not free you of your Germany-based requirements and regulations.   Cheerio  

  As said above: I would be very surprised if the insurance company will accept your cancellation because only the combined/joint owners can do this. The other idea of yours, to set up your own insurance on the side - which I can fully understand if you find the existing insurance lacking in coverage in important parts, which unfortunately often is the case - would also not hold in case of a damage claim later because you can not have two insurance side by side to cover the same risk. That would be considered "überversichert" in Germany and the newer insurance would then simply step back and tell you that the older insurance is the valid one and needs to settle the claim. I am not sure if the rather complex German insurance laws allow any loopholes for such a case like yours' . Therefore I would suggest that you either contact the nearest "Verbraucherzentrale" who might be able for relatively small fees to analyze this for you and find a way. Or you hire a "Versicherungsberater", purely fee-based insurance advisors. There are some very experienced ones who have in parts similar rights like "power of attorney" and can assist you and perchance also find ways and means to solve this conundrum you find yourself in.   Cheerio  

I must admit that I have not come across a situation yet personally where it is just two owner/landlord sharing such building insurance and not several. Hence I am not 100% sure on this. But when applying the normal logic of insurance laws in Germany, you can't cancel the insurance by yourself, neither in parts nor in full. It would require the signatures of all owners of the building that is insured (or, if there is a Hausverwaltung as a designated representative, which you said is not the case here). That does make sense because if just one would be allowed to cancel, the other insured party might become uninsured without their knowledge. Or be forced into something new that - for whatever reasons - would not like to consent to.   Therefore your best course of action is to get one or several quotes for alternative insurances in (and make sure you aren't comparing apples with plums, i.e. that coverage and quality of the insurance match the "old one" for sure) and pass them on to the other landlord. If what you have is better, you guys can decide to switch. With building insurances, it is usually 3 months' notice time before the next renewal (usually not per end of the year but within the year). And more often than not its a 3-year contract anyway. Therefore you'll need to check first at what point you can switch the insurance jointly in the future if you have a truly better comparative offer at hand.   Cheerio  

sorry to hear this - will check it out, but AFAIK, the contact form works fine. Having said that - it is summer holidays and both our office and our advisors are partially enjoying their holidays, which can cause some delays. But please send a direct email to me and I'll see that is answered asap: patrick.o.ott@crcie.com   Cheerio  

The problem is here, that the Gebäudeversicherung is always for the full building. So you can't partially cancel and then partially set-up something else. You will need to convince the other owner that there is a better solution out there. If it offers better coverage for same price or a lower price for the same coverage, that should not be too hard. But just by yourself is not possible, I am afraid.   Cheerio  

 and what a great real estate deal you made...! Where have you moved to, dear Axemurder ?   Cheerio  

Thanks... I grew up there (even though I now live since 2004 in the neighbour town of Schäftlarn) and it is great to be back in politics again. Another good article (in German) is this one here: https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/landkreismuenchen/kommunalwahl-in-baierbrunn-patrick-ott-1.4862706   But, as said above, after a short while of radio silence on my behalf, I'll be back giving regular info and advice here on Toytown. And will soon start an additional info-website/blogg for Expats in Germany on all financial and insurance topics with tons of free advice. Probably starting late in September, watch out then for info from me when the new blogg starts.   Cheerio  

@lunaCH well, as said/explained above, that article from Advocard (= Anwalts Liebling :-), what great advertising that was way back when ) is not incorrect in itself. Because not having health insurance is not (yet) punishable by law. Only issue are back-charges which can cause hefty financial concerns when needing to face them (which could come out if one without health insurance falls seriously ill or has an accident and required expensive medical care without having a health insurance for coverage/payments).   Not having the Pflegepflichtversicherung (PVN) , though, is an Ordnungswidrigkeit, i.e. punishable by law with fines. I have seen Expats threatened with extradiction/termination of residence permits if they were found out to be without a PVN. And getting fined, too.   And since you won't get a PVN without first setting up a German public or private health insurance, not having such a health insurance then gets you fined in the end, even though the fine won't be about not having the health insurance but not having the PVN.   Is all I am saying.... :-)   Cheerio  

Hmmm... a private health insurance company should be able to continue his coverage abroad, as long as it is still within the EU. We usually face rather the opposite dilemma that a German private health insurance company won't cancel the existing contract unless we or the client prove that he switched into the national/state health system of another EU-member state.   Having said that: AFAIK it is imperative in Sweden to be part of the national health system. So, if he is a fully resident there, he would IMO have to join the Swedish national health insurance system...and in that case indeed the German private health insurance would have to end. In all such cases: if there is even a small likelihood that one might be coming back to Germany, make sure you ask for and then set up a so-called "Anwartschaft". For a small monthly fee you'll lock in your current medical status and then, when you come back even with a new chronical or ongoing illness, you'll be accepted back with full coverage whereas otherwise you might find it rather hard or even impossible to be re-admitted as new client due to the new medical issues .   Cheerio  

 That is very true..though I will continue to offer free and unbiased advice here on Toytown. Just so the first 2 months in office did not allow for much spare time to do that, since the pandemic crisis required my attention full scale. But, as can be seen above, our team of advisors (including the director, my wife, Nora Ott) is still going strong and @Paul@CRCIE is our in-house mortgage expert and can certainly assist you there very well.   Cheerio  

Paul already answered this correctly (little wonder, he works at a great advisory company :-) ) There are only three kind of pension plans that bear any tax subsidies in Germany: For employees only: bAV (company pension schemes). Read more about them here: https://www.crcie.com/financial-advice/foremployees/bav-company-pension-schemes/ For employees, public servants and people (even self-employed) married to employees or public servants: RIESTER pension plans: https://www.crcie.com/financial-advice/foremployees/riester/ For everyone (but predominantly high-earning employees and self-employed): RÜRUP pension plans https://www.crcie.com/financial-advice/self-employed/ruerup-basis/   Germany won't recognize any foreign pension plans for tax subsidies in general. At least in my long-time experience tat is so... ( I have read now and then that some contributions to British or US-American pension schemes ought to be tax-deductible, but that is probably only ever the case (if true at all) in special cases like secondment or such, me thinks). Cheerio  

ht legal side of this is: you are beholden to take care of incoming mail if you are longer away from home than 14 days or so. I.e., if post accumulated and you did not receive it, it is legally your problem and not theirs. Don't get me wrong: I am not judging you or anything, just describing the legal situation as is.   IMO if you explain this to the original invoice issuer and ask for understanding, you stand a good chance to get this waived at least in major parts. Of course the collecting company/agency has accrued some real costs for issuing the letters to you and what not and they might demand that at least some of the factual costs are met. Which, I think, would be a fair offer still.   But if they'll insist on you paying in full, you have no legal ground to dispute this, I am afraid.   When in doubt, btw., try to contact the nearest "Verbraucherzentrale" (you should be able to Google which one is closest to you), they might be able to help you with this and even know some legal loopholes that can be used on your behalf   Cheerio  

if you move to another EU-member-state you can just freeze the RIESTER-plan. If keeping the capital there is a good deal or not depends of course on what kind of plan you have with what initial and ongoing costs. It might make sense to pay some extra fees and switch it to a different kind of RIESTER plan with better investment options for the long term. The good news is that when waiting for this investment to grow, you'll get the payout later based on the full "Zulage" (direct subsidy) and all because other EU-member-state are to be considered like if staying in Germany. If you move outside of the EU, though, it will become a different ball-game altogether. Because if you move outside the EU, you basically have to repay the ZUlage AND the tax advantages received at once (meaning this will be deducted from your accrued capital in the plan). Without that and due to the initial costs for the plans (commissions and all) it will then most certainly be a loss. But you can simply claim a deferral of the liquidation of the RIESTER plan by stating a (vague) intent to return back to Germany later in retirement. That way the capital remains in the plan in full and continues to grow. And that means there are profits from your net investment as well as from the capital come out of the tax savings and the subsidy/Zulage. This will act like a profit leverage on your net-investment and can be significant over time... depending, as said above, what ongoing costs your plan has.   There are advisors here in Germany who can assist you with this in a transparent, fee-based consulting. Might be worth paying some fees to get clarification and perchance protect some good future profits in this plan for you.   Cheerio