Templates for landlords

How do the templates work?

Each template only asks for what belongs in your document: names, the flat's address, dates and amounts. You fill in a form or answer the questions in a chat with Denise, and the document grows on the right as you go. Anything still missing shows as a placeholder, and the template suggests deadlines itself.

You download the rental agreement as a PDF at the end. CIRO emails you the letters and annexes as a PDF. None of your details are stored, except for the rental agreement, where your draft is kept under a personal link so you can continue later. No template needs an account, and none of them costs anything.

Which template do you need for what?

Which template you need depends on where your tenancy stands: at the start, the rental agreement, house rules and heating guide help; when there is trouble, the warning letter; and as a last step, termination without notice. Each template covers exactly one of these occasions and asks only for what it needs.

• New tenants: the rental agreement for flats, furnished, flat shares, graduated or index rent and for a garage or parking space
• Rules in the building: the house rules with quiet hours, stairwell and winter service
• Preventing mould: the heating and ventilation guide as an annex to the rental agreement
• Trouble with tenants: the warning letter for seven reasons, from late rent to refused access
• When nothing else helps: termination without notice, with ordinary notice as a fallback

Which documents come up from move-in to move-out?

Over the life of a tenancy you need documents in four phases: choosing the tenant, signing the agreement, the running year and the move-out. For each phase there is a template, a checklist or a calculator you can use without an account.

1. Finding a tenant: with the tenant selection checklist you only ask what you may ask, and you check creditworthiness only once you want to give someone the flat.
2. Signing: you sign the rental agreement, house rules and heating guide together. At handover, a report records meter readings, keys and defects.
3. The running year: once a year you settle the service charges, at the latest twelve months after the end of the billing period. The service charge deadline calculator shows when your deadline ends.
4. Move-out: check the notice, handover, deposit and service charges for the final month. The tenant changeover checklist works out the end of the tenancy and every deadline from the date the notice arrived.

Which form do agreements and letters need?

The form depends on the document: terminating a residential tenancy needs written form with a handwritten signature (§ 568 BGB), and so does a rental agreement meant to run for a fixed term of more than one year (§ 550 BGB). The law prescribes no form for a warning letter, but in writing it is your evidence.

Receipt matters as much as form. What counts is the day the letter is in the letterbox, not the day you send it. Whoever sends a letter has to prove in a dispute that it arrived. That is why a method with proof pays off:

• handing it over in person against a signature on a copy
• delivery by a messenger who knows the content and notes date and time
• registered mail with proof of delivery to the letterbox (Einwurf-Einschreiben)

If there are several landlords, all of them sign. If there are several tenants, the letter is addressed to all of them.

What should you watch out for with templates?

Above all, check how old a template is and whether it fits current tenancy law. Many templates online contain clauses the Federal Court of Justice has struck down, and an invalid clause drops out entirely. The statutory rule then applies, and the provision you relied on is gone.

• Fixed renovation schedules such as "kitchen and bathroom every three years" are invalid.
• A blanket ban on dogs and cats does not hold up in court.
• Warnings and terminations must be delivered in a way you can prove, ideally by messenger.
• A termination by email is invalid, and the notice period does not start.

The templates here follow current German tenancy law, name the relevant sections and suggest deadlines. They do not replace advice on your individual case.

Which calculators go with the templates?

Many templates have a calculator that checks the numbers before they go into the document. The rental deposit calculator shows the maximum and the instalments, the notice period calculator the end of the tenancy, and with late rent you work out the default interest.

Before signing, the rent cap calculator shows how high the rent may be when you re-let. If the agreement has index-linked rent, the index rent calculator works out the next adjustment. All calculators for landlords are free as well.

Which checklists help you along?

Where a template delivers a document, a checklist makes sure you do not miss a step. You tick it off in your browser, and your progress stays saved there.

• The flat handover checklist for the walk-through, meter readings, keys and the deadlines afterwards
• The rent arrears checklist from a first conversation through the reminder to termination
• The landlord duties checklist for smoke alarms, winter service and insurance
• The first letting checklist if you have just bought your first flat