Nursing homes are generally not allowed to charge a reservation fee for the time until moving in, not even from those with private insurance.
The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe decided on Thursday.
Such an agreement is incompatible with the statutory provisions and is therefore ineffective.
According to the regulations of the Eleventh Social Security Code, those with long-term care insurance only have to pay for their place on the days that they actually spend in the home.
This was controversial for people with private long-term care insurance (Az. III ZR 225/20).
According to the assessment of the Biva-Pflegeschutzbund, which had supported the plaintiff, those with statutory health insurance also benefit from the judgment, because some homes would also have charged them place fees.
The case itself has to be tried again at the Cologne district court.
There it remains to be clarified whether the man who sued for his mother, who has since died, is solely entitled to sue or whether there may be other heirs.
There is a dispute here over just under 1130 euros for two weeks in February 2016, during which the woman's home had kept a place free.