The Federal Constitutional Court has declared Berlin's rent cap unconstitutional. The state law is null and void because the federal government has regulated the rent law. Now many tenants are threatened with additional payments.

According to a decision by the Federal Constitutional Court, Berlin's rent cap is invalid. The law is null and void, the judges said in their decision. The rent cap, which came into force more than a year ago, violates the Basic Law. Since the federal government had already passed the rent cap in 2015, it had exclusive legislative power, the decision said. There was therefore no room for the Länder to pass their own laws.

The lawsuit filed by 284 members of the Bundestag from the CDU/CSU and the FDP was thus successful in Karlsruhe. Two civil courts in Berlin had also asked Karlsruhe for clarification.