After several months of trial, a verdict was spoken last Thursday morning.
The city's peace court took a final decision in the month-long dispute over a rent reduction in Limpertsberg.
The judge has ordered the price be neither elevated nor reduced, thus separating both parties without a real winner in the matter. Plaintiff and defendant thereby had to share trial costs.
The tenant, who had lived in the 90m2 apartment for six years, had gone to court to demand a rent reduction from €1,700 to €1,100. His argument was based on a 2006 law, which limits a landlord's annual rent demands to 5% over property value. Since the building was constructed in 1957, the man did not want to accept a raising of the rent fee.
Only one other case of the 2006 law being used to reduce rent has occurred so far. In 2014, a tenant managed to reduce the monthly fee for his apartment in Bettembourg from €600 to €250.
During the trial of the Limpertsberg case, an expert was consulted to revise the rent. According to the 2006 law, only €268 would remain to be paid for the apartment.
However, considering market evolution, the expert recommended that the price should be set at €1,825 per month.
The verdict on the matter had already been scheduled to be released three weeks ago, but since the administration chose to freeze all rents for the remainder of the year, it had to be postponed.
