Glossary

The German words in every Berlin flat ad

Berlin's rental market runs on about fifteen German words, and most of them mean something more specific than a dictionary will tell you. These are the ones that decide whether you can register your address, get your deposit back, or legally be in the flat at all — written for someone reading ads this week, not for a law exam.

General information, not legal advice. For a dispute, Berlin's Mieterverein is the right call.

• Zwischenmiete A temporary sublet of a whole flat or a room, for a fixed period, while the usual tenant is away — the dominant way to rent short-term in Berlin.
• Untermiete Subletting: renting from the tenant rather than from the owner. The legal category that a Zwischenmiete sits inside.
• Untermieterlaubnis The landlord's written permission for the tenant to sublet. The single thing that decides whether a Berlin sublet is solid or precarious.
• WG (Wohngemeinschaft) A shared flat. The default way people under about thirty-five live in Berlin, and where most rooms in the sublet market are.
• Nachmieter The next tenant. A “Nachmieter gesucht” ad is someone leaving permanently and looking for a replacement — not a sublet.
• Anmeldung Registering your address with the city. Legally required within two weeks, and the key that unlocks a tax ID, a bank account and a phone contract.
• Wohnungsgeberbestätigung The signed confirmation from whoever houses you that you really live there. You cannot do your Anmeldung without it.
• Kaution The deposit. Capped at three months' cold rent on a normal lease, and the single most common vehicle for Berlin rental fraud.
• Kaltmiete and Warmmiete Cold rent is the rent alone; warm rent adds the running costs. Confusing them is how a budget goes wrong by a hundred euros a month.
• Nebenkosten The running costs charged on top of cold rent — heating, water, rubbish, maintenance. Paid monthly as an estimate, reconciled once a year.
• Möbliert Furnished. Standard for Berlin sublets, unregulated in price, and vaguer in an ad than you would expect.
• Ablöse A payment to the outgoing tenant for the furniture or kitchen they leave behind. Legitimate in principle, and a classic way to overcharge.
• SCHUFA Germany's credit record. Routinely demanded for permanent flats, impossible to have on arrival, and a red flag when a sublet asks for it.
• Befristet and unbefristet Fixed-term versus open-ended. Sublets are almost always the first, and German law is stricter about it than most arrivals assume.
• Mietvertrag The rental contract. Even for a two-month sublet, get something in writing — it is the only proof you live there.
• Kiez A Berlin neighbourhood, at the scale of a few streets. The unit Berliners actually use to say where they live.