A naked landlord doesn’t justify lower rents, court rules

The court found that ‘the usability of the rented property was not impaired by the plaintiff sunning himself naked in the courtyard’

The court said that the spot where the landlord sunbathed could only be seen from the rented office by leaning far out of the window, (Timothy Allen)

A naked landlord does not justify reducing rent payments, a German court has ruled.

The ruling was made after a human resources company in Frankfurt withheld rent because it objected to the landlord sunbathing naked in the courtyard.

The landlord sued the company, which rented offices in the Frankfurt building, but the court rejected the company’s reasoning, finding that “the usability of the rented property was not impaired by the plaintiff sunning himself naked in the courtyard.”

The Frankfurt state court said in a statement that it could not see an “inadmissible, deliberately improper effect on the property.”

Judges were ruling on an appeal against a lower court decision that went in the landlord’s favour. They found that the tenant had been entitled to reduce rental payments for three months only because of noisy construction work in the neighbourhood.

The court also said that the spot where the landlord sunbathed could only be seen from the rented office by leaning far out of the window, and the tenant failed to prove that he took the stairs to the courtyard unclothed.

“On the contrary, the plaintiff stated credibly that he always wore a bathrobe which he only took off just before the sun lounger,” it said.