Reader question: May my contract already stipulate a higher rent today in anticipation of a future relaxation of the law?
An agreement in a lease contract states, in effect, that in the event of a future statutory relaxation of rent limits the then higher rent shall apply immediately. Perhaps instead a commitment is signed today to conclude a new agreement later. Such wordings are a different matter to an ordinary adjustment tied to a price index.
The statutory trigger is decisive
§16a paragraph 1 MRG declares void agreements that provide for an increase of the main rent in the event of a change in statutory provisions governing its amount. It explicitly includes the obligation to conclude a new rent agreement in the event of such a change in the law. [MRG16a]
It therefore does not depend solely on the clause’s heading. A present commitment to a later new declaration does not legally disappear simply because the actual increase is allegedly to be signed only later. Whether your specific wording meets this rule will be assessed on the basis of its complete content and the appropriate scope of application. [MRG1]
Do not conflate three different wordings
Our editorial recommendation: Mark in the contract clause which event is to trigger the change. Is it an index change? A genuinely voluntarily renegotiated agreement? Or precisely a statutory change to the permissible level of the main rent?
These distinctions belong in legal advice. The article does not decide an ordinary indexation clause and does not declare every reference to a law automatically inadmissible. Nor does it assert any impending change in the law; the future case here is deliberately hypothetical.
A fictitious comparison of wording
Text A describes only a higher rent that will be legally permitted in future and binds the tenant already today to that. Text B requires a later signature in the same event, to which the tenant is already obliged today. Both are therefore examined with regard to the express subject matter of §16a.
Text C would, by contrast, be a proposal submitted later without the assumed present binding. It needs its own assessment of its actual legal framework. The example is not a drafting recommendation for contractual clauses and is not an approval of any of the texts.
Preserve the existing agreement
Keep the original rent agreement, addenda and the relevant clause in full. Paragraph 2 governs a special case in which such a clause was the motive for entering into a rent agreement; it provides for the invalidity of that agreement and the continued validity of an earlier one. [MRG16a]
No universally calculated consequence for every contract should be derived from this. Whether such a connection exists and which earlier state is relevant requires the actual contractual history. A single sentence taken out of context may be insufficient for that purpose.
If an increase has already been demanded
Record receipt, amount, alleged legal basis and requested commencement. Have the concrete procedure, including the applicable deadlines, checked in addition to the clause. Do not change the payment solely on the basis of your own interpretation of this article.
The useful outcome is a precise legal question: Is it a present commitment to a later change of statutory rent limits or another adjustment mechanism? With this distinction the general term rent adjustment becomes a contractually reviewable subject matter.