A total of 115 residents of an apartment building in Stuttgart will be without a home in the coming month after the landlord gave them short notice at the end of August to accommodate Ukrainian refugees.
The owner of the so-called boarding house in the district of Weilimdorf is the firm Dobler & Dr. Dobler. Currently, mainly foreign nationals live there. Some of them receive funds from the job center, while others work for a parcel service. Although their leases “for an indefinite period,” the owners now seem to have found a loophole. Permanent living status is prohibited in any apartment complex registered as an “accommodation facility.” Therefore, according to the landlord, no open-ended leases should have ever been signed.
Instead, the owner is now seeking to host Ukrainians at exorbitant prices paid for by taxpayers, Stuttgarter Zeitung reports.
The “micro” apartments amount to 20 square meters (215 square feet with partially furnished rooms, with the landlord charging €570 including utility bills. According to the newspaper, the average price per square meter in Stuttgart is actually €10.34. If the current residents move out, 100 apartments would be free for Ukrainians, and the city would pay the monthly cost.
Chairman of the DMB tenants’ association in Stuttgart, Rolf Gaßmann, is firmly opposed to the move. He threatens to become an “assistant for unjustified dismissals.” The only option for the current residents is to sue for damages, for which many do not have the money. Otherwise, these residents, who are mostly migrants, will have to clear the field for other migrants.
