Berlin rent cap overturned by Germany's top court
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Re: Berlin rent cap overturned by Germany's top court
#2> The court ruling found that since the federal government had already made a law regulating rents, a state government could not impose its own law that infringed upon that
That's somewhat inaccurate, because "infringing" doesn't come into play.
The German Constitution clearly delineates things that the federal government may regulate, things that the state governments may regulate, and things that both may regulate.
In the latter case, the state governments may only regulate when the federal government hasn't done so.
Here the federal government did, by way of amending the civil code, so Berlin isn't allowed to.
The court did not rule on the material issue whether such a rent cap would be constitutional, if enacted in a procedurally proper way.
Re: Berlin rent cap overturned by Germany's top court
#3I don't even live in Germany or Europe, so why am I happy about this?
Re: Berlin rent cap overturned by Germany's top court
#4It is unconstitutional because it treats people unequally. New people will not find any rentable properties, and will have to stay in hotels paying 10x more.
It is just another form of xenophobia.
Re: Berlin rent cap overturned by Germany's top court
#5It is unconstitutional because it treats people unequally. New people will not find any rentable properties, and will have to stay in hotels paying 10x more. It is just another form of xenophobia.
That’s why it’s bad but not why it was found unconstitutional
Re: Berlin rent cap overturned by Germany's top court
#6Well that's very disappointing.
Re: Berlin rent cap overturned by Germany's top court
#7It is unconstitutional because it treats people unequally. New people will not find any rentable properties, and will have to stay in hotels paying 10x more. It is just another form of xenophobia.
That is a horrible argument, because the same can be said for land ownership. Isn't it unfair that when I move somewhere, I discover that all the land in that area is already owned by someone else. Why should some old history entitle someone to exclusive ownership of any piece of land, and the ability to charge arbitrary rents for it?
The fact of the matter is, first movers have all sorts of unfair advantages over latecomers, many of them from luck, or from circumstances of birth - and I doubt you are seeking to overturn all of them.
Re: Berlin rent cap overturned by Germany's top court
#8Full text of the court decision (German): https://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/SharedDocs/Entscheid...
Shorter press release (German, too): https://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/SharedDocs/Pressemit...
It's a classical application of the "federal law breaks state law" rule, which I think exists in the united states as well.
Re: Berlin rent cap overturned by Germany's top court
#9[deleted]
Re: Berlin rent cap overturned by Germany's top court
#10Keep in mind that when they say Berlin's rents are soaring, it's still comparatively cheap for large cities in Germany.