The purchase price looks favourable. However, another person is to be allowed to continue using the house. You want to move in later yourself or rent it out in the meantime. For the purchase decision you must therefore first determine which use will actually be available to you after acquisition and which ongoing responsibilities you will bear.
Name the specific right
“Lifetime right of residence” in an advertisement is not yet a complete description of the legal situation. Have the current registration, approval and relevant agreements explained on the basis of your listing. Who is entitled, which rooms and outdoor areas are included, and what conditions have been agreed? This article deals with rights in favour of natural persons in Germany.
§1093 BGB describes the right of residence in respect of a building or part of a building to the exclusion of the owner. The provision also contains rules on the admission of family members as well as necessary domestic and nursing staff and on jointly used facilities. [WOHNUNGSRECHT] That is not a blanket answer to every question about renting out to third parties.
Usufruct (Nießbrauch) under §1030 fundamentally concerns enjoying the uses; individual uses may be excluded. [NIESSBRAUCH] It is therefore not sufficient to enter both designations in your calculations as roughly equivalent restrictions. The actual content created is decisive. The long-term right of residence under §31 WEG is, in turn, a different object of acquisition and is not covered in this article.
Translate the content into your living and income plan
Our editorial recommendation: For each area offered, describe who may use it now and what use you yourself assume. A room that you need for your family will not at the same time be planned as freely available rental space. Communal access areas, garden and ancillary rooms need the same clarity as the main dwelling.
With usufruct §1059 distinguishes between the non-transferability of the right and the possible relinquishment of its exercise. [AUSUEBUNG] Have it examined in particular who is to be able to let and who is to be entitled to the agreed income. A prospect of rental income from the house is not automatically income of the future owner.
Place the actual use and the legal authority side by side. An area that is currently vacant may still be covered by a right. Likewise, today’s tolerance of your use does not by itself prove that you are legally secured for your entire planned ownership period.
Assign burdens and building tasks concretely
§1041 and §1047 regulate maintenance and bearing of burdens in usufruct with different requirements and limits. [ERHALTUNG] [LASTEN] No simple statement can be derived from the word usufruct that one party must pay all ongoing and future works.
Present the concrete agreements and foreseeable tasks to professional advice. Separate consumption, ordinary upkeep, planned renewal and financing. For each material item you need an understandable test point. Where an allocation is still open, your acquisition calculation remains open as well. The article does not establish an individual obligation to pay costs.
Hypothetical case: Moving out is planned as the start of letting
A couple wishes to acquire a house in respect of which another person retains a usufruct. It plans to cover its own loan payments initially from savings and later from the rent of an allegedly vacating flat. As a starting point it takes on the non-binding prospect of a future move-out.
In the assessment the couple separates the actual place of residence of the entitled person from their further right and from the uses of the house. It has clarified who would economically benefit from a possible letting. It then evaluates the purchase based on confirmed own income and the actually sustainable cash requirement. It does not calculate an unsecured later start of letting as already fixed financing.
Plan only with an evidenced change of the right
A possible later agreement is recorded with its actual status. The contractual removal of a property right requires under §875 as a rule a declaration of abandonment and deletion, insofar as the law does not provide otherwise. [AUFHEBUNG] Have the procedure required for your transaction and its security explained concretely. The mere relocation of the entitled person is not a deletion proof confirmed by this article.
The article does not calculate life expectancy nor a general price reduction. For your decision the legal scope, reliably available use, confirmed income and allocated burdens are brought together. Submit the same examined situation to the bank. Only then can it be assessed whether this offer suits your housing objective and your financing.