Rent reduction during the lease term - Application of the relative method

Facts

[A.] and [B.] each rent an apartment in a building owned by Foundation X. In 1995, X. informed the tenants of a readjustment of the rent calculation basis, including the mortgage rate and the consumer price index. Although the net rent was reduced, the tenants did not contest this modification.

In 1997, [A.] and [B.] requested a rent reduction due to the decrease in the reference mortgage rate. The Rental Tribunal and the Court of Appeal partially granted their requests, taking the date of November 10, 1995 as the first point of comparison, considering it to be a new rent setting.

[A.] and [B.] appealed to the Federal Tribunal, contesting this decision.

Considerations

The Federal Tribunal upheld the appeal. According to case law, a request for rent reduction during the lease term must be assessed according to the relative method, i.e. based on the evolution of the rent since its last setting.

In this case, the notice of November 10, 1995 did not constitute a new rent setting, but a simple modification of the lease that did not call into question the rent amount. Consequently,…