Termination for personal use

Termination for personal use / Eigenbedarfskündigung des Vermieters

April 03, 2025

What is a termination for personal use?

A termination for personal use occurs when the landlord terminates the tenancy with the tenant so that he or she or persons close to him or her, so-called ‘privileged persons’, can occupy the apartment.

Under what conditions is a termination for personal use possible?

A landlord cannot terminate a tenancy for their own use in every case. Rather, termination for personal use is only possible under certain conditions.

Justified interest of the landlord

Under German tenancy law, it is not possible to terminate a tenancy without good reason. Rather, the interests of the tenant conflict with those of the landlord. In order to terminate the lease, the landlord must always have a legitimate interest in ending the tenancy, since tenancy law recognises the loss of the apartment as a great hardship for the tenant. Examples of such interests justifying the termination of the tenancy are listed in Section 573 (2) of the German Civil Code (BGB). Section 573 (2) no. 2 BGB allows for termination due to personal use, i.e. for the reason that ‘the landlord needs the rooms as a dwelling for himself, his family members or members of his household’. The landlord can therefore terminate the lease if he or she or other ‘privileged persons’ wish to live in it.

Privileged persons

The landlord's relatives include his children, parents and grandparents, as well as children-in-law and parents-in-law, nephews and nieces. More distant relatives must have a personal relationship with the landlord in order to be considered relatives within the meaning of the provision. The landlord's household includes all persons who have been permanently admitted by the landlord to his or her home and who live in close domestic community with him or her but do not run their own household. Typical examples are life partners and their children, domestic servants, nursing staff and also so-called ‘chosen relatives’, such as godchildren.

Requiring the apartment

The landlord, his relatives or the relatives of his household must ‘require’ the apartment. According to case law, the desire to use the property for one's own purposes must be seriously pursued, must be based on reasonable, understandable reasons and must not be abusive. It is necessary, but also sufficient, for the landlord to have the serious intention of living in the rented property or of allowing another privileged person to live in the property, and to be able to present reasonable and understandable reasons for doing so. The case law is extensive and characterised by individual cases, but overall it can be said that, in addition to the acute need for housing, economic, professional, personal and health reasons can also be asserted.

The privileged persons must also have the will and the actual possibility to use the apartment, otherwise there is no ‘need’: It is up to the landlord to decide whether the apartment is suitable for his purposes – contrary to what is often demanded by tenants, in the event of a court case, the court will not check whether the size of the apartment is ‘excessive’ in relation to the number of people, i.e. whether it is unsuitable for the landlord's purposes.

If the landlord is merely feigning to be serious about their intention to use the property, the termination is invalid and, due to this behaviour, constitutes a breach of contract that leads to a claim for damages against the landlord even if the tenant moves out in response to the invalid termination. Indications of feigning include the relative not knowing the apartment at all or not knowing about the termination justified by his needs, or if there were disputes about the amount of rent/further termination attempts etc. before the termination.

Furthermore, the apartment must be needed ‘as an apartment’, i.e. it must serve as a place to live. Purely business purposes or hobby purposes are not sufficient, but not all rooms have to be used for residential purposes. However, the residential use by the landlord or the privileged person(s) must be the primary use. The intention to use the property only occasionally, for example as a second home or holiday home, does not preclude this; the future user does not have to want to base their life there.

Furthermore, the property must also be needed for a certain period of time. A period of use of less than a year is unlikely to meet this requirement.

Stating the reasons for the termination for personal use

In the personally signed notice of termination for personal use, the landlord must state the reasons for the personal use to the tenant in detail and describe the need precisely. It must be possible for the tenant to understand from the notice of termination why the landlord needs exactly this apartment at exactly this time for his own use, i.e. for himself or for his relatives. The relative must be described in detail (not necessarily named), the transfer to ‘one of his children’ is not sufficient. However, specific information for the verification of personal needs does not have to be provided; this only becomes relevant when the court examines Section 573 of the German Civil Code.

If the reasons change later, the landlord must inform the tenant of the changed reasons without delay. If the circumstances justifying the personal use of the property cease to exist during the notice period, the tenancy will continue at the tenant's request, but the notice of termination remains effective. Furthermore, the landlord must offer the tenant any vacant apartments in the notice of termination. However, a violation of this obligation to offer does not result in the ineffectiveness of the termination with the new case law of the Federal Court of Justice, but at most leads to a claim for damages by the tenant.

Adherence to the notice periods of § 573c BGB

The notice periods of § 573c BGB must also be observed in the event of termination for personal use, so the tenant does not have to leave the apartment immediately even if the landlord needs it. The notice period is at least three months; for tenancies with a rental period of five years or more, the notice period is extended to six months, and to nine months for tenancies with a rental period of eight years or more.

Right of objection of the tenant in the event of unreasonableness according to § 574 BGB

The tenant can object to a termination for personal use by the landlord if it is unreasonable according to § 574 BGB. The unreasonableness of the termination depends on the personal circumstances of the tenant. For example, the tenant's advanced age, serious illness or particularly long-standing roots in the apartment and the surrounding area, as well as children of school age, are grounds recognised by case law that may speak in favour of the unreasonableness of the termination. The actual existence of these grounds must be carefully examined and determined by the court, and evidence must be taken if necessary.

In this context, the interests of the tenant and the landlord are weighed against each other according to the specific circumstances of the individual case: the tenant's interests must outweigh the landlord's interests to be deemed unreasonable, but a ‘clear preponderance’ is not required. The same standards must be applied in this consideration as in the examination of personal requirements in accordance with § 573 para. 2 BGB, so that the life planning intended by the landlord must also be taken into account to the same extent here. The landlord's interest in using his property himself is just as fully justified for a landlord who has only recently purchased the rented apartment as it is for a landlord who has owned the apartment for some time and has concluded the lease.

Possible invalidity of the termination for personal use?

However, a notice of termination for personal use can also be invalid for special reasons if the statutory requirements of Section 573 (2) of the German Civil Code (BGB) are met.

One such reason can be found in Section 577a of the German Civil Code (BGB). According to this, a notice of termination for personal use is excluded for a period of three years after, among other things, the conversion into a condominium. This is intended to counteract the eviction of tenants through such conversions.

Further grounds for ineffectiveness may arise from § 242 BGB, the principle of good faith. The most important example here is the ineffectiveness of a termination for personal use if an alternative apartment is available for the landlord. However, this does not apply to cases in which an alternative apartment is already available to the landlord at the time of termination, since in this case the landlord does not ‘need’ the apartment in question in the first place, but rather to cases in which an alternative apartment becomes available after the notice of termination for personal use has been given and before the end of the notice period. However, the landlord must be able to reasonably use the alternative apartment, which is the case if the alternative apartment is ‘similar’ to the apartment originally sought. A termination for personal use is invalid if the personal use already existed when the lease was signed or was foreseeable for the landlord, but the landlord did not point this out to the tenant and the personal use was foreseeable. The landlord has a duty to inform the tenant of the limited possibility of use if there are already concrete indications of the existence of reasons for personal use when the contract is concluded, if the landlord is already seriously considering or even intending to terminate the contract for personal use, and if he is aware of the tenant's long-term interest in use. A requirement is assumed to be foreseeable if less than five years have passed between the conclusion of the contract and the termination, although this is not a fixed period. The landlord's obligation to provide information is deemed to have been met by offering a fixed-term tenancy agreement in accordance with Section 575 of the German Civil Code. The information can be dispensed with if the tenant is aware of the landlord's plans.

The breach of trust of the termination contrary to § 242 BGB can result from the assertion of a far-excessive housing requirement by the landlord or the privileged persons. As described above, the landlord has the sole right to decide on his personal needs according to his ideas and requirements. An abusive assertion of the need – and the resulting invalidity of the termination – is only given in exceptional cases and is judged by the courts, taking into account the interests of both parties, on the basis of objective criteria and a specific assessment of the circumstances of the individual case. In doing so, the living space, the number of rooms, the layout and the furnishings of the apartment, the needs, life plan and life planning as well as the personal and economic circumstances of the person in need, the situation on the housing market and also whether the apartment is to be used permanently or only sporadically can be taken into account. The objection of a far excessive need for living space is excluded if the number of planned residents in the future is the same or greater than before.