The complaint (Rüge): how to get overpaid rent back
No complaint, no refund: only a complaint in text form opens the claim to repayment under Section 556g of the Civil Code.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method
What does your complaint recover?
Recoverable
€2,520
| Months | 21 |
| From the start? | yes |
If the agreed rent exceeds the rent-brake ceiling, the agreement is void to that extent, and the landlord must hand back overpaid rent. You can only reclaim it under Section 556g(2) of the German Civil Code, though, once you have complained about the breach (Rüge). The complaint must be made in text form, so a letter or e-mail will do, and must refer to any disclosure the landlord gave before the lease was signed. Timing decides: if you complain within 30 months of the start of the tenancy and the lease is still running, you recover everything overpaid since the start. If you complain later or after moving out, you only get back rent falling due after the complaint arrives. With an overpayment of €140 a month and a tenancy starting on 1 April 2024, a complaint after 29 months yields €4,340 up to the end of October 2026, a complaint after 31 months only €0.
What the complaint does
Section 556g BGB separates two things. The agreement on an excessive rent is void from the start to the extent it exceeds the lawful rent (subsection 1). And the claim to repayment only arises for the period the complaint covers (subsection 2). Without a complaint the money stays with the landlord even though he was not entitled to it. An early complaint recovers it in full, a late one only from the complaint onward.
The 30-month limit in figures
| Complaint after | refund from | months to end of October 2026 | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 months | start of tenancy | 31 | €4,340 |
| 29 months | start of tenancy | 31 | €4,340 |
| 31 months | 1 December 2026 | 0 | €0 |
The jump between 29 and 31 months shows why the deadline matters so much: complain two months later and the overpayment of more than two and a half years is lost. The 30-month limit applies to leases signed from 1 April 2020; older leases had a narrower rule. The small calculator above works out the limit with your own figures.
What goes into the complaint
- Your details and the flat. Name, address, position of the flat, date of the lease and of the start of the tenancy.
- The objection. That the agreed net cold rent exceeds the rent permitted under Section 556d BGB.
- The basis. The reference rent from the rent index with edition and field, or the result of the city's online lookup, the ten per cent limit and the amount by which the rent is too high.
- Reference to the disclosure. If the landlord named a previous rent, a modernisation, a new build or a full modernisation before signing, address it and explain why the exemption does not hold.
- The demand. Repayment of the overpaid amounts and, from now on, payment of the lawful rent only.
- A request for information. Under Section 556g(3) BGB the landlord must tell you the facts that determine whether the rent is lawful, as far as they are not publicly accessible and he can provide them without difficulty.
What a complaint can look like
An example to adapt (letters to German landlords are best written in German): "Dear Sir or Madam, for the flat on the second floor left at Musterstraße 1 we signed a lease on 15 March 2024 starting on 1 April 2024. The agreed net cold rent of 900 euros exceeds the rent permitted under Section 556d BGB. According to the rent index, the local reference rent for the flat is 10.90 euros per square metre, so 763 euros for 70 square metres; at most 839.30 euros is lawful. We hereby complain about the breach of the rules on permissible rent at the start of a tenancy, demand repayment of the amounts overpaid since the start, and ask you to tell us the facts on which you base the agreed rent." Date, name, signature if on paper. The figures in the example are made up; insert your own.
The landlord's disclosure before signing
If the landlord wants to rely on an exemption, he must inform you in text form, unprompted, before you make your declaration (Section 556g(1a)). If he failed to, the normal ceiling applies even if the exemption existed in fact. If he discloses later, he can only rely on it two years afterwards; if he did not use text form, only after a proper disclosure. So before complaining, check whether and when you received such information, and keep the lease with all its annexes.
If the ordinance has since expired
What counts is whether the rent brake applied in your municipality on the day the lease was signed. If the state ordinance expires later, as in Hesse in November 2026 or in Baden-Württemberg at the end of 2026, your claim remains. A complaint is still possible afterwards, but the 30-month limit continues to apply. The state pages, such as the rent brake in Hesse, give the end dates. Whether your rent was too high at all is worked out by the rent brake calculator; the basics are on the rent brake page.
Costs and help
A complaint costs nothing, and you need neither a law firm nor a service provider for it. Tenants' associations (Mietervereine) help members draft it and enforce the claim. Legal-tech providers run the procedure for a share of the amount recovered; whether that pays off depends on the sum and on how much effort you want to put in yourself. If no agreement is reached, the local court where the flat is located decides.