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Frankfurt / Main (dpa) - Operators of shops cannot claim a lack of rent due to Corona restrictions and thus reduce the rent.
The Frankfurt Higher Regional Court confirmed on Friday that a business operator had been sentenced to pay full rent (Az. 2 U 143/20).
In the first lockdown last spring, the tenant of a shop in Bad Homburg was unable to use the commercial space from mid-March to mid-April and only to a limited extent from April 20, due to corona restrictions.
Sales collapsed.
The landlord did not respond to the request for a rent reduction, whereupon the operator only partially paid the rent from April to June.
The landlady therefore sued for the outstanding rent.
The regional court upheld the lawsuit, the appeal to the OLG was unsuccessful.
The contractually owed rent was not reduced for any legal reason, the court said.
The business did not have any defects justifying a rent reduction.
The rooms were still suitable for the contractually agreed use.
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In the documentary procedure, it was also not possible to determine that the tenant could demand a reduction in the rent due to a serious disruption of the business basis of the lease.
The basis of the contract has changed significantly as a result of the pandemic.
However, the parties did not assume that consequences of such a pandemic would occur during the term of the contract.
The decision is not final, said the OLG.
The revision is allowed.
In February, the Munich District Court I ruled in a similar case that the rent of commercial space is to be paid despite the pandemic-related closings.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210319-99-890789 / 2
Communication OLG