The Santander Consumer Bank can continue to offer an ATM in its branch in Ratingen.

The fear of robberies and explosive attacks gives the landlord of the bank no reason to prohibit Santander from offering this service to customers.

A civil senate at the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court (OLG) on Monday rejected the appeals of several owners of the apartment building on the ground floor of which Santander's offices are located.

The court announced that there was no unanimous decision by the entire homeowners' association to change the use of the mixed residential-commercial property.

Marcus Young

Editor in Business.

  • Follow I follow

Santander and the landlord have been at odds with each other for more than two years.

A couple who own two-thirds of the apartment building in Ratingen are demanding that the ATM be removed.

It fears an attack by the organized gangs of automatic sprinklers and thus damage to the house.

But the bank refused to stop the service.

Santander argued that setting up and thus offering an ATM is quite normal part of the business purpose of a branch that is open to the public.

Raids by "Plofkraker"

In North Rhine-Westphalia in particular, there have been many nocturnal demolitions of ATMs in recent years.

The perpetrators feed gas into the machines and set them on fire, in other cases explosives are used.

This caused millions of euros in damage to bank branches and real estate.

According to detectives, the "Plofkraker" are behind the actions, i.e. organized gangs from major Dutch cities.

You blast open the machines, take the money and within a few minutes you are on the next motorway in the direction of the border with high-powered vehicles or motorbikes.

In the oral hearing a few weeks ago, it was said that the number of blasts in around 70,000 ATMs throughout Germany was 350 cases.

The Santander branch is on a thoroughfare in Ratingen.

From here it is only a few kilometers to two federal motorways, with a fast car the border town of Venlo can be reached in half an hour.

A dangerous situation, but neither the judges in the first nor in the second instance could be convinced.

The Düsseldorf Regional Court did not address this in its dismissal of the lawsuit in 2020.

It had emphasized that there was no breach of duty in the rental agreement as a result of the use.

Abstract danger is not enough

Now the presiding judge Joachim Unger announced on the occasion of the announcement in Dusseldorf that the merely abstract danger of an attempted access by criminals is not enough to prohibit Santander from using the authorized use.

There is evidence of an explosion, Unger explained.

From the Senate's point of view, it is crucial that all the owners of the house agreed to the operation of a bank branch in the declaration of division in 1971, even if there were no ATMs at the time.

Unger therefore advised the plaintiffs to come to an agreement with the other co-owner about amending the declaration of division.

The dismantling of the ATM would then be enforceable.

The Senate did not allow an appeal against the decision (Az. I-9 U 25/21).

Santander, the subsidiary of the major Spanish bank, has 190 branches in Germany.

According to a company spokeswoman, the last time an ATM was blown up was in January 2020.

"Our ATMs in all branches have high security standards," said the spokeswoman.