Create meetup in Berlinchevron_right
Select a place on the map to change the location.
I want to meet
Verified required?
want to meet at fmd_good Bean & Folio
want to meet at fmd_good Common Place
want to meet at fmd_good Riverwalk Center
explore Berlin Guides
Berlin Hidden Gems (2026)
kirstin
Berlin on a Budget: Tips 2026
annette
Where to Stay in Berlin (2026)
frieda
3 Days in Berlin: Itinerary 2026
rabeakurth
Things to Do in Berlin (2026)
viktoria
Best Food in Berlin (2026)
bar_chart Trends in Berlin
What does it mean if it says in my rental contract that the apartment has been renovated?
I have a feeling the landlord lied about this apartment being renovated. I moved into the apartment in 2019, and I'm afraid I may have been paying too much rent, and they put this in the rental contract to somehow justify higher rent. For context, I'm in Wilmersdorf, the apartment is 45 sqm, top floor with no elevator, and I pay 650 cold rent. The building is Altbau, but my apartment itself became available for the first time for rent in the early 90s. I went on the conny.de website and it says that I'm paying 400 EUR too much rent!! That has to be wrong... Or maybe I'm getting screwed.
What recourse do I have here? To me, a renovated apartment means everything is new, but really, everything is 30 years old, and I feel like they lied.
honestly that 400 euro thing from conny is probably not that far off. in berlin "renoviert" in a contract can mean basically nothing specific, landlords use it to claim higher rent but without actual proof like receipts or dates it's just words. i had a friend in a similar situation in neukölln, her contract said "kernsaniert" but the bathroom was from the 80s.
your best bet is to check the berliner mietspiegel 2023, for wilmersdorf altbau with that size and no elevator you're likely overpaying. the fact that they replaced the kitchen only after you complained is a red flag too, real renovations would have been done before you moved in. you can file a mietminderung request retroactively if you have evidence the condition was worse than described, but you'd need to be organized about it. conny actually handles this stuff for a cut so it's worth talking to them even if the number seems wild.
What is the correct spelling for a street name that appears differently on multiple signs in Charlottenburg?
Worth noting that Berlin street names have official umlaut and ß rules that trip people up, so a sign showing "Strasse" versus "Straße" is not actually a spelling error, just an older transcription. Same with "ue" versus "ü" (e.g. "Kantstrasse" vs "Kantstraße"), both are considered valid renderings and you'll see the ß version on the blue Schilder and the ss version on older plaques or in databases that predate Unicode. If the difference you're seeing is between those two forms, there's nothing to fix and both are technically correct.
if the signs u mean are the old enamel ones on the house facades those are often protected as Baudenkmal so nobody's allowed to correct them even if the spelling is outdated. the binding version is whatever is in the Berliner Strassenverzeichnis plus the entry in the Liegenschaftskataster, so if u tell me the street i can point u to the right Bezirksamt Mitte or Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf page. tbh the merged district thing is real but the facade signs are a separate story, theyre basically museum pieces at this point
honestly thats super common in Charlottenburg, the district offices were merged from older Bezirke and nobody ever fixed all the Schilder. if its a real street you can check the official strassenverzeichnis on berlin.de, that list is what the Burgeramt actually goes by. which street is it? some of the Kaiserdamm / Kantstrasse signs are notorious for this.
load 1 more reply