If a tenant fails to move out then the landlord can claim high loss of use compensation

On that point, on 16.6.2021, the Local Court of Brandenburg delivered a decision in a case (case reference: 31 C 51/20) where the tenants had given notice of the termination of their rental agreement in September with effect from 31.12. Then, however, they changed their minds and sent the landlords a letter where they withdrew their notice of termination. They thus thought that their notice of termination had been rescinded and also did not move out on 31.12., but only did so in June of the following year instead. For the period from January to June the landlord then claimed compensation for use in an amount equivalent to the average market rent for the local area – and this was more than the rent that had been agreed. It was decided that it was only possible to ‘withdraw’ a notice of termination by mutual agreement. The landlord was able to claim compensation for use and instead of collecting the rent that had previously been agreed, in this case, they applied the average market rent for the local area, which could be achieved in the case of a new rental. 

Please note: In cases of doubt, the specific amount of this ‘market rent’ may be determined by the court using estimates. The rent would then be determined on the basis of the rent index for the local area and, a 10%  premium would commonly be added.