Nanny government at work

arbilad · Head Chef

Nanny government at work

Cat Herder · Understander of unimportant things

This is application of a new law, not the law itself. It sounds like a combination of German practicality and a carryover attitude from the former communist mentality of the former East Germany. And, note the size of circulation of the paper it was reported in... http://www.guj.de/index_en.php4?/en/produkte/zeitung/zeitungstitel/dresdner-morgenpost.php4

This is happening in one town, where 100 tennants of a housing association (think apartment complex, apartment building, condo association) are complying with the housing association that is "renting" to them says do not use this or that room or else we'll have to kick you out since the government (housing authority) is either paying your rent or part of it.

I don't think the law (which I haven't found yet) is really any different than some of the laws we have here in the US concerning government subsidized housing for low income people. If a landlord wants to still be considered a vendor for that, they have to comply with what restrictions the government puts on them. And from what I can tell, this is probably just a typical German efficiency of saying people of x income level on government assistance do not need more than y number of square feet / meters living space for a family of z size. This is all we will pay you Herr Landlord for. So, make sure the units we are paying for fit that criteria for space.

To think of it in a similar sense as the Germans most likely would, the scenario is like placing a single person in a three bedroom flat when the formula says they only need one bedroom. And since there are not enough one bedroom flats available, rather than us as the housing association bricking up two rooms to make it a one bedroom flat until the person moves out and we no longer have to rent it to a welfare tennant, we will not allow them to use the spare bedrooms. The reality may be that the housing association probably changes the locks on the room(s) that are verboten and does not pass the respective key on to the tennant.

On my mission, I had one apartment that the landlord had actually split into two seperate apartments simply by changing the keys to different rooms. It was always fun (not) having to cross the "common" hall between our bedroom and our bathroom and kitchen and having to keep all three doors locked at all times so the tennants in the other "apartment" wouldn't come in... I had another apartment where two one bedroom apartments shared a bathroom, and this was rented from a member who was the building landlord. Again, we had to go down the hall to the other apartment and hope the man there wasn't in the bathroom.

arbilad · Head Chef

I'm not disputing the authority of the town government in this case to specify that people can't use certain rooms. I'm just saying that it's absurd. The article didn't mention other people using the empty rooms, which, as you point out, would make some sense. It said they were sitting empty. I can understand trying to keep costs down by not paying for more apartment than the person needs. But why tell them they can't use certain rooms until a smaller apartment becomes available? The rooms are sitting empty and unused. It just seems arbitrary and malicious.

Cat Herder · Understander of unimportant things

But why tell them they can't use certain rooms until a smaller apartment becomes available? The rooms are sitting empty and unused. It just seems arbitrary and malicious.
From our perspective, yeah it looks that way. But, in German mentality, it's not malicious... otherwise you had have welfare folks across the nation protesting. This is just an efficient way of being compliant with a law for a landlord. One thing that I didn't bring up is that some of these welfare tennants may also be refugees seeking asylum from other countries or guest workers. One thing the native German mentality will not accept is that those who are there as "guests" getting a free ride gratis of the government get better living accomodations than citizens. That could be part of the background in the government enacting a law that limits the amount of space a welfare recipient gets in the subsidized housing.