Getting rid of mentally ill tenants can make you mentally ill

Getting rid of mentally ill tenants can make you mentally ill

Karlsruhe (jur). Landlords can usually not enforce the eviction of an apartment, if the tenant threatening serious health damage. But this can be different if the eviction dispute in the long term makes the landlord mentally ill, as shown by a resolution of the Federal Supreme Court (BGH) published in Karlsruhe on Wednesday, August 10, 2016 (Ref .: I ZB 109/15). The mutual interests are then brought into balance - here by a postponement of the eviction, if the tenant in the meantime goes into therapy.

In this specific case, it is about a bungalow in the area Fürstenwalde in eastern Brandenburg. The landlords, a couple, live right next door and use the garden, shed and garage of the bungalow property, including for their animals.

The tenant would actually be required to vacate, but the district court Fürstenwalde suspended in February 2013, the enforcement. Reason was a mental obsessive-compulsive disorder. According to the report, any changes to the usual procedures have led to a massive anxious tension. An evacuation of the bungalow would lead to a depressive disorder with a high risk of suicide, according to the appraiser.

The landlords turned off electricity and gas in May 2013. When that did not help, the man hit almost all the windows of the bungalow in the summer of 2014. He justified this with the steadily worsening mental state of his wife.

In the second instance, the Regional Court Frankfurt an der Oder also obtained a medical report from them. After that, she goes through a so far "mild depressive episode". The dispute over the bungalow takes them but almost completely in the fog, so that they are hardly able to deal with other issues. Only the hope for eviction leads to a certain stabilization. Otherwise, "a worsening of the disease with concomitant suicidality" would be at risk. The man suffers considerably, if not so hard.

In this situation, the district court ruled that the tenant must clear the bungalow. Since without clearing the landlords threaten serious damage to health, the tenant could no longer rely on their mental health problems.

The BGH now opposed this either-or. If health or even life is in danger on both sides, a balance of interests must be sought instead.

Here, the risk for the tenant is currently much higher. According to reports, however, an improvement can be achieved if she finds a therapist who treats her in her apartment. Therefore, a solution is conceivable in which the Mietrein for this purpose temporarily remains in the bungalow.

After the BGH decision of June 16, 2016, which has now been published in writing, the details are now again to be determined by the Frankfurt / Oder district court. mwo