Homemade Germans. How are German houses arranged?
Many German cities have managed to retain their former charm. IN populated areas, which escaped major destruction during the Second World War, urban development dates back many centuries, which is the subject of admiration for tourists. And half-timbered buildings still decorate the appearance of many old parts of cities.
We all know popular popular, already quite tired, but, it seems, “unkillable” clichés about Russia - the balalaika, the matryoshka doll and the tame bear. But the standard idea of Germany is also not complete without mentioning Oktoberfest, sausages and, of course, such cozy, gingerbread-like German houses. This image of a domestic idyll attracts many who are in love with Germany. But is it really so and in what houses, behind a stone wall, do German burghers live?
Fachwerkhaus ( frame house)
– this is exactly the same “postcard” view of Germany: fairytale house, which you want to admire without ceasing - and even better to live! The house consists of wooden frame, the cavities of which are filled with a mixture of wood and clay or, in some cases, brick. Half-timbered houses are an integral part of the country's architecture; it is impossible to imagine Germany without them. As a rule, such houses are located in the old part of the city (Altstadt). 
Reihenhaus (sectional house) is a separate house that is part of a line of houses built in a row. Sectional houses predominate in the development of the central part of cities. Outside the historical center of the city, they are usually located separately standing houses and houses with two apartments. 
Doppelhaus this is usually a large two-unit residential building. But you shouldn’t be afraid - you won’t have to share the premises with anyone except your family. In most cases, this type of housing consists of two houses with a common wall, each of which stands on its own plot of land and has its own separate entrance. So you don’t need to worry about how to get to the bathroom in the morning, ahead of your neighbors. 
Einfamilienhaus (family house)- is a residential building that serves as a home for one family and contains one conventional apartment. As a rule, such single-family houses are owned by users and are therefore also called private houses. 
Sozialwohnung (municipal apartment) is a dwelling built with the help of public government funds. These apartments have fairly low rents, since they are intended mainly for low-income segments of the population (large families, people with disabilities). 
In order to rent such an apartment, you must have a special permit. This permit, accordingly, is received by persons whose income does not exceed a certain permissible limit. Municipal apartments are received on a first-come, first-served basis, but since there are more people eligible to rent such apartments than the housing itself, they are distributed on an urgent basis. For example, it is more likely that municipal housing will be given to a disabled pensioner who lives on the 5th floor in a building without an elevator. 
Wochenendhaus (summer house) is a house or hut located in a rural, natural area for spending a vacation or weekend there. Some summer houses are in really very beautiful places: lakeside or mountain view. From small garden plot on the outskirts of the city (Schrebergarten, Kleingarten) summer houses differ primarily in size. They are usually well off modern plumbing, there is gas and electricity. 
Bungalow- represents cottage, which may have various options roofs The word itself comes from North Indian languages and literally means “Bengali style”. The history of the spread of such residential buildings is connected with the fact that in the 18th century, British colonialists living in the Bengal region took local houses as a model for housing construction and reproduced them. Typical bungalows have one floor and a spacious veranda. In Germany, the peak of popularity of bungalows occurred in the 60s of the 20th century. 
What kind of house would you like to live in?
According to the stories of readers published on the site as part of the competitions “My Living Room”, “My Kitchen”, “My Bedroom”, one gets the impression that Belarusians are wealthy people who live in interiors made with taste and attention to detail. Wooden cabinet and leather upholstered furniture, German wallpaper, designer sanitary ware and Italian tiles are almost the norm. It’s curious, what kind of “mansions” do ordinary Europeans live in then?
We have studied housing that is for sale or rent. We also went to visit “ordinary Germans” - pensioners and an “IT specialist” - and asked permission to take pictures for this material.
Kitchen in a house that is on sale for 375 thousand euros. Photo from immobilienscout24.de 
Kitchen in a house for 400 thousand euros. Photo from immobilienscout24.de 
Kitchen in the house for 399 thousand euros. Photo from immobilienscout24.de
It turns out that by Belarusian standards, the Germans live little better than us.
Dining-living room in an apartment, which is rented for one and a half thousand euros 
The bedroom is there too. 
Bathroom in a house for 399 thousand euros. Photo from immobilienscout24.de What I immediately noticed is that the Germans are terrible conservatives. Rarely will any of them think of, say, buying a cheaper shower cabin in Poland or hiring finishers from Lithuania. They love everything German here, even if you have to overpay for the goods.
Yes, the average salary of Germans differs several times from the Belarusian one. But given the high prices for public utilities, food, gasoline, school after-school programs, services in hairdressing salons and auto repair shops, there is not much free money left. And obviously designer new items do not fall into the category of what practical Germans are willing to spend their free money on.
Living room in the house of German pensioners 
In a house valued at 400 thousand euros. Unfashionable tiles, simple plumbing. Photo from immobilienscout24.de 
A beautiful, by German standards, bathroom in a house worth 395 thousand euros. Photo from immobilienscout24.de 
Plumbing fixtures that have gone out of fashion in Belarus are in a German house for 398 thousand euros. Photo from immobilienscout24.de We were in the “rich” (according to the German citizens themselves) state of Baden-Württemberg. Just like in Belarus, furniture from IKEA is very popular here. The nearest store of this chain is crowded on a weekend: there are crowds of people around the furniture exhibits, queues for consultants, and lines of carts stretching to the cash registers. For comparison, in the largest local mall XXXL Mann Mobilia, where expensive (mass-produced, non-designer) furniture, dishes, lamps and other household goods are sold, in trading floors quite deserted.
IKEA is also loved in Germany. The photo shows the apartment of the family of a teacher and a social worker. The finishing of the floor, walls and ceiling is not given as much attention here as in our country. Often in wealthy homes you can see inexpensive laminate flooring and paintable wallpaper on the walls and ceiling, painted white. Even in bathrooms.
- Why is almost everything white here? — I asked the owners.
“It’s practical, everything goes with white, it’s easy to choose furniture.”
I almost never saw painted, pre-plastered walls here.
Paintable wallpaper, popular in Germany. In the photo - the apartment of the family of a teacher and a social worker 
All around there is wallpaper for painting. House for 396 thousand euros. Photo from immobilienscout24.de 
Simple finishing and furniture in the house for 396 thousand euros. Photo from immobilienscout24.de Only in two apartments was it possible to admire German patterned wallpaper, so popular in Belarus.
Colored wallpaper in the dining room in the house of German pensioners By the way, the Germans have no idea what “German stretch ceiling" There are almost no plasterboard structures here - to make the walls even, they are often upholstered wooden slats.
Living room in the apartment of a teacher and a social worker. The walls are finished with wooden slats and wallpaper for painting 
The house for 398 thousand euros has a wood ceiling. Photo from immobilienscout24.de 
Wooden ceiling in a house for 398 thousand euros. Photo from immobilienscout24.de 
"Dry" interior with budget furniture in a house for 396 thousand euros. Photo from immobilienscout24.de Comparing the approaches of Belarusians and Germans to housing, you quickly come to the conclusion: we attach more value details and strive to create interiors that look expensive.
No-frills interior in a house for 399 thousand euros. Photo from immobilienscout24.de 
Strange bathroom in a house worth 396 thousand euros. Photo from immobilienscout24.de 
Nothing extra. In a house for 396 thousand euros. Photo from immobilienscout24.de In Germany, they make interiors within their means, “for themselves.” As, for example, in the house where the family of a German IT specialist with two children lives:
I recently met a builder from Germany, and was surprised to learn from him that building a house is very easy and simple. They have spent a lot of brains on technology and organization, they have a bunch of services, from strength calculations to free house-building capacity - but there is almost nowhere to put all this wealth.
I am primarily interested in wooden houses“a la frame builder” and I, of course, told him about my idea for a building constructor. As it turned out, the idea is not new - everyone has already come up with it before us! This is how they build themselves. Only with the hands not of the customer, but of the builders.
According to the German, they build both wooden and stone houses. Wooden - frame. Houses made from SIP panels are considered a type of frame house. Stone - their wall stones, like our aerated concrete, but not quite. Their main difference is that these stones are made either without the use of cement at all, or with some ridiculous amount of it. But ordinary brick for external walls is prohibited, so as not to heat the street, and the construction of such a house is much more expensive.
And, by the way, at the cost of a “box” of them frame houses are obtained a little more expensive than from their wall blocks. And if with finishing and additional insulation- then it’s the other way around - in stone walls and when laying the floors, it is impossible to lay all the communications; this has to be done separately.
The German was very reluctant to talk about the details of the device - he said that everything would be done “as expected.” However, we managed to find out something.
“As it should be” - these are German standards of quality, durability and energy saving for our climate, i.e. the way, according to their standards and understanding, it is necessary to build in our climate.
I was interested wooden house, so the main conversations were about this. First we discussed SIP panels, because, as it seemed to me, they were faster and more convenient to build with.
It turned out that, despite the same name, they have different panels - not the ones what we call "Ecopan". They often use polyurethane foam as insulation, rather than polystyrene foam, like ours. He says it’s more environmentally friendly and warmer - less insulation is needed, the wall is thinner, less wood is used for the frame, and it’s not cheap.
The main advantage of SIP panels - the simplicity and speed of assembling the box - disappears when assembled by German hands: the box of a 150 m2 house made from SIP panels is installed in a day, and a simple frame - a maximum of one and a half. But SIP panels are inferior in terms of assembly time: to prepare structural elements for a regular frame, it takes 2 weeks, and from SIP panels - 4-6 weeks. The final price of the house is almost the same.
Especially about energy efficiency at home: this is one of my “problems” (well, I really don’t like being dependent on external factors, especially in such a vital issue as the temperature inside the house).
It is clear that the climate in the main territory of Germany is significantly warmer than ours. But German houses are warmer than ours even for their climate. And if you use their standards for our climate, then you get a “hurricane”:
We believe that 14 cm of polystyrene foam in a SIP panel (Ekopan type) is enough for the walls to have the required heat transfer resistance. And by German standards for our climate outside you need another 10 cm of foam. And for their climate they add only 4 cm! At the same time, there are practically no vestibules at the entrance. For our Krasnodar region, this, of course, is suitable, but for the Moscow region it is not.
Here is an example of their house:
Some details of the structure of such a house are.
The construction of such a house with an area of about 150 m2 looks like in the following way:
A set of parts is made at the factory and delivered to the construction site by 8:00 along with a detailed installation plan. By the evening of the same day (10 hours before), the box is assembled at home. AND this happens without a hacksaw or tape measure- parts do not require adjustment on site.
The foundation (usually of the “slab” type) is made in advance by another team of four people. It takes her TWO day. All necessary communications are laid in the foundation. After production, the foundation should stand for at least a week.
Since their worker’s time is very expensive (according to the estimate - at least 20 euros per hour, usually 25), the assembly team has a good set of tools and uses a mini-crane - although there are no heavy parts, but with it it is much faster.
Of course, after 10 hours of assembly, only a “box” is obtained, but the box is very nice: the walls and ceilings are standing, the roof attic floor or rafter system ready for roofing. Cable channels are already laid into the walls and there are wires and all the pipes in them. The walls are not only a frame in the traditional sense of the word, but also all the necessary insulation inside. From the inside it turns out smooth walls made of polished OSB (you can glue wallpaper), If the house is made of SIP panels, then additional insulation is already attached to the outside - ready for exterior finishing. The outside of the house is covered with windproofing.
At this point, the installation of the box is considered complete.
None exterior decoration not included in this stage. Windows are one of the first jobs to be installed the next day: without them there are drafts and the inability to carry out other work. On the second day the house is covered with a roof.
Bringing a 150 m2 house into turnkey condition takes them about another month. But it’s really “turnkey” - hang curtains, put in furniture and live: sockets, switches and plumbing are installed, tiles are installed, the roof is covered, laminate flooring is installed, all doors are installed, all communications are connected to existing networks. A finishing staircase has been installed.
The German house has several more features:
- the rigidity of the floors and the load-bearing capacity of the walls is calculated, and not done by eye. And it is calculated according to German standards, which are higher than ours. Minimum permissible load“they have” - 200 kg per m2 - it is impossible to do less. When ordering a house, you can ask any other, but only above them minimum standards. If your project includes, for example, a large corner bathroom, then the load-bearing capacity of the floor underneath will be appropriate. For floors, special beams are used, which can have different sizes, and they can be laid as often as necessary to ensure the required strength of the floor. Examples of such beams
- The Germans have different panels. Instead of polystyrene foam, which causes environmental concerns, rigid polyurethane foam is used inside the panels. It is more effective as insulation, safer in case of fire, and better in terms of environmental parameters. Thanks to this, the layer of additional external insulation of the house box with polystyrene foam can be reduced to 8 (!!!) cm. Our houses made of SIP panels make do with only a 14 cm layer of polystyrene foam inside the SIP panel. I have never seen any cases of such insulation outside. Maybe there is somewhere in Siberia...
In addition, the Germans have sanded OSB on the inner layer of the SIP panel - it is much smoother than usual, and, for example, wallpaper can be glued on it without additional leveling/puttying, which significantly simplifies the finishing and reduces its cost. Although they usually cover it with plasterboard - according to their German standards, this is supposed to be done in a number of cases for fire safety reasons.
- heating it requires much less energy - 1 kilowatt per 100 m2. It turns out that a 100-watt incandescent light bulb can heat a room of 10 m2. And a warm floor can be the main heating system, and not an auxiliary one, as is usually the case with us. And taking into account the fact that a person also gives off a noticeable amount of heat, and Appliances- too, then heating energy may require even less. Almost an "energy-passive" house!
In principle, such a house can even be placed “in an open field”, and the necessary energy can be obtained using a small wind generator and a solar battery. And if you use gas in cylinders for heating, then one cylinder is enough for a month in winter.
There are already technologies for storing electricity and delivering it to the house when power is needed that significantly exceeds the power of the source, and I wrote about this. If you calculate the amount of money, effort and time that needs to be spent on supplying and connecting main gas to the house, then now the “autonomous” option may turn out to be more attractive. Especially considering the independence from gas and energy companies.
This, of course, is partly explained by significantly more warm walls and floors, but German ventilation standards make a huge contribution to the increased energy efficiency of the house.
Let me remind you that according to our standards, the air in a room 3 meters high should change once an hour. It means that warm air it is necessary to drive it outside, and the outside one must be heated and brought into the house.
I can understand such standards if three people live in a 15m2 room (as was often the case after civil war), but for a house with a volume of 450 m3, which usually houses 1-3 people? I'm afraid it's just sabotage.
The Germans have individual house You just need to open the windows once a day and ventilate the rooms. It is believed that air leaks from the street through opening doors and leaks in windows. Nobody prohibits fans in bathrooms and hoods in the kitchen, and, in my opinion, they should be left. And an open window in the summer is the most proper ventilation. And in winter, opening it slightly for a few minutes is also very nice.
The construction of such a house turns from a terrible headache and a lot of risks into a very nice and enjoyable activity for the customer. WITH labor discipline, the accuracy and quality of work of the Germans is all right. Construction simply ceases to be a feat.
And, most importantly: the cost of construction such a house, including materials, delivery, customs and assembly by German hands according to their German drawings, practically no different from construction"almost the same" houses by our builders. It turned out that 1m2 of area will cost 27.5 thousand rubles!!! This amount was obtained using the example of calculating the cost of building a turnkey house like this by the architect Firsov:
This money includes the foundation, delivery, customs, assembly by German hands, and connection to communications. (The cost of sewage treatment plants, water wells, electricity limits - of course - no. They don't even really understand what that means.)
The German says that he is ready to build a house in the Moscow region for this money!
If all this works out like this, then the “German house” has one more thing interesting "consequence":
If studio apartment in Moscow costs 500 thousand USD, then with this money you can buy a plot of land near Istra (50 thousand USD, 30 km from Moscow), build a “German” house of 130 meters (140 thousand USD - one living room and three bedrooms), spend another 20 thousand for the development of the site (water, local wastewater treatment plants, paths, etc.), 15 thousand - for furniture - a total of 225 thousand. Another 25 thousand - a car. And live on the remaining 250 thousand for 10-15 years, forgetting about work. This is an interesting arrangement.
And all this can be done without a headache in 4-5 months, taking into account the time for searching and registering a site.
What is your attitude towards this construction?
More about the "German House":
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A person who has never been to Germany, finding himself in a modern German village, will not immediately realize that this is a village. In fact, what is a village in our country? Dirty streets, rickety fences, dilapidated houses, vegetable gardens...
There is nothing like that here at all. There are no dirty streets - you won’t see dirt here at all, asphalt and tiles are everywhere. There are no fences, neither lopsided nor straight, there are no fences at all! There is no talk of dilapidated houses at all. And no gardens! IN best case scenario lawn next to the house.
What is a German village?
Germany is located in the northern part of Europe. This is one of its most densely populated countries. There is little land, but many people. And all of it (the land) is divided into sections - patches. There is no undeveloped land here at all.
The climate, in contrast, is quite harsh by European standards. That's why people here live in communities, in groups. In this sense, German villages are truly villages. That is, in clusters of houses, unlike in Italy, where mostly in rural areas houses stand in splendid isolation.
At the same time, modern German village, looks more like a small town. It has shops, pharmacies, schools and other amenities of civilized city life. Well, with the exception of the very small ones. This is what a German village looks like in the photograph.
The old German village, and there are a lot of them, given that people have lived here since time immemorial, consists of several streets. Sometimes it has an area. And the churches are local Catholic churches– is found in almost every village.
German country house
Accordingly, there are many very old houses. Such houses cannot be dismantled and rebuilt. You can only patch and reconstruct. How else can you preserve a traditional German house?
A country house in Germany almost always has two floors. Its architecture cannot be confused with anything else. This is a frame house, the beams and braces of which are visible from the outside. In general, half-timbered timber means “cellular thing” in German. Because of this, the facades look very beautiful and unique. German houses on the picture.
In the old days, the space between these cells was filled with anything: clay, stone, garbage. Now, of course, they use modern Construction Materials for filling cells and insulation.
Houses are sometimes faced with tiles or bricks. It is rare, but it happens that the entire first floor is made of brick. It is more expensive than the frame construction method. The Germans are very thrifty people, which is why their houses are not distinguished by the elegance of their forms and the variety of designs.
Almost always it is a rectangular box with a simple gable roof. Again for reasons of economy. The roofs of old houses are covered with tiles. That's why there's a village above orange color. The second or third floor is often made into an attic.
A house in a village in Germany is not very cheap. Its price is usually from 200 to 400 thousand euros. But, of course, they are also significantly more expensive. Therefore, it cannot be said that the owner of German real estate in the village is poor, quite the opposite. Apartments in the city are much cheaper.
There are no fences around the houses here. There are small ones sometimes, and even those get done faster decorative function. Sometimes there is a lawn next to the houses, and most often everything around the house is tiled. And the street is completely asphalted.
Despite the fact that the villagers are not poor people for the most part, they do not flaunt their wealth. There are ordinary small cars parked next to the houses. Life in the village of an ordinary burgher in years proceeds calmly and measuredly.
Entertainment in the villages is a bit tight. Therefore, young people, of course, tend to move to the city. After seven in the evening life generally calms down. Where do these people work, not on a tractor? Why, some of them are on tractors, about ten percent of the population.
The rest go to work in the city. Fortunately, the roads here are very good. And the nearest town is usually ten to twenty minutes away. This is how the story about a modern German village turned out.
If you ask me what a typical German apartment looks like, I will throw up my hands - there is simply no exact answer to this question. Standard layouts in Germany there are practically none, therefore, even knowing the number of rooms and area, you can never be sure of what you will see. For example, half of the apartment may be occupied by a cunning system of corridors. There are rooms without windows or heating. A hundred-meter apartment may have a guest toilet, but the bathroom will only have a shower. The attic in German houses is almost always inhabited, and in the attics you can come across a variety of apartments: those with a barely noticeable slope at the ceiling, and those in which the walls are located strictly at an angle of 45 degrees, and therefore you feel like you are in a wigwam.
Kitchen curse...
Quite a lot of housing is rented in houses that were once built for one big family. They are inhabited by pensioners whose children have long since left. Part of the house is empty, and they decide to rent it out. Sometimes owners do redevelopment for this purpose, but not always. In this case, the apartment looks exactly like Holmes and Watson’s home on Baker Street: a common entrance, the owners are on the first floor, the residents’ rooms are on the second, and nothing separates them except the stairs.
But the main problem with German apartments is, without any doubt, the kitchens. In most homes they are not just small, but tiny. This is some kind of curse, after which even kitchens in Khrushchev-era buildings seem like airfields. In one of the apartments I visited, everything was perfect: large rooms, a bathroom, a twenty-meter terrace with access to the garden... The kitchen was a corridor in which it was impossible to even sit down without blocking the passage. After this, it’s easy to understand why Germans are so willing to spend time in cafes and restaurants. My wife and I were somehow phenomenally lucky to get an apartment with a kitchen at 15 square meters- probably the largest in the city. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the rooms.
... and balcony happiness
On the other hand, there are unconditional advantages in German apartments. One of them is Keller. This is, as a rule, a separate room in the basement measuring from five to fifteen square meters. In terms of the number of apartments, Kellers have almost all houses, regardless of whether they are two hundred years old or two years old. Thanks to this simple solution, balconies and loggias were saved from the sad fate that befell them in Russia. A German balcony is not a warehouse for junk, but a place where the owners grow flowers, drink coffee and fry meat on an electric grill.
Also in the house there may be several more very useful premises. These include a shared garage for bicycles, a trockenraum - a room in the attic where clothes are dried (yes, exactly the same one in which Carlson pretended to be a ghost, scaring the robbers). I also once came across a house in the basement of which there was a small gym for residents with ping-pong and wall bars, and in another in the attic there was a common children's room game room. Special mention must be made about laundries. Even if there is enough space in the bathroom or kitchen washing machine, you will not always be allowed to put it there. Instead, there is a room in the basements where all residents turn on their Boshis and Indesites. However, today even the Germans themselves do not find it particularly convenient - it is a vestige of the time when any self-respecting washing machine hummed like a steam locomotive. Laundry facilities are a rarity in new homes. But in the old ones, it often serves as a kind of communal kitchen and hobby club for neighbors.
Tenants also receive the right to use the space around the house - a garden or lawn. True, you should first carefully read the list of what you can do there and what you cannot do. I’ve never come across “do not walk on lawns” signs, but there are more than enough other prohibitions: “do not walk on the grass with your dog,” “do not have picnics,” “do not smoke.” At first, the abundance of such restrictions is, to put it mildly, puzzling. But if you look around, you will definitely find that somewhere nearby there are separate places for picnics (with an obligatory public grill), a children’s playground, and a place for sports.
The deal is more valuable then money
In any case, when moving in, it will be useful to ask the owner or building manager about what can be done in the apartment and the surrounding area, and what cannot be done, because the lease agreement does not include everything. It usually takes the form of a four-page printed form; only the tenant’s data, amounts and, if necessary, some information are entered into it by hand. special conditions. For example, we insisted that ours include a clause allowing keeping pets - in standard form it is not included.
Perhaps the most important difference between renting housing in Germany is that the standard rental agreement is for an indefinite period. And if the tenant fulfills his obligations, it is very difficult to force him to leave the apartment. Even if the property changes ownership, this does not lead to automatic termination of the lease. Moreover, the new owner does not have much leverage even to revise the price in the contract. First, he will need to prove the validity of this decision. And if the tenant turns out to be intractable, he can sue the owner all the way. In every city in Germany there are tenant associations, staffed by lawyers who are well versed in the intricacies of housing legislation. Membership isn't free, of course, but it's usually worth it. People go there not only in case of a dispute over the price of housing, but also in a host of other situations. Our friends, for example, thanks to the help of consultants, forced the landlord to replace poorly installed equipment at his own expense. plastic windows and insulate constantly damp walls. Mold, by the way, is a typical problem in local housing, such is the climate.
By the way, apartments with seasoned, litigation-hardened tenants are usually put up for sale much lower than their market price. Local buyers are well informed about the contents of such Pandora's boxes. But a considerable number of our compatriots who dream of real estate in Europe do not know about this. As a result, an unpleasant surprise awaits them. On Russian-language forums you can find a lot of stories about how people, having fallen for a tempting offer from realtors, spent a lot of nerves after the purchase and spent a lot of money on lawyers, and in the end were forced to sell the housing in which they were never able to live at a loss.
The Case of the Cracked Sink
It should be noted that a lawsuit with the owner of an apartment is as commonplace for a German as going to the dentist. In fact, the relationship between owners and tenants here and in Germany differs little - it is exactly the same mixture of distrust, pettiness, quarrelsomeness on the one hand, and sloppiness, irresponsibility, impudence on the other. It's just that the way to resolve conflicts is slightly different. Of those of our friends who have lived in Germany for a long time, litigation housing issue Almost no one escaped. However, the matter does not always come to court. More often than not, everything ends in a settlement agreement, because this is more profitable for both: the amounts involved are small, and the process can drag on for a very long time.
Although, if there are particularly principled citizens on both sides, very revealing stories emerge. For example, our friend’s father sued his former landlord for three years over a crack in the sink. When the respectable pensioner moved out, the owner noticed damage to the plumbing, replaced the sink, and withheld the costs from the deposit. The price of the issue was several hundred euros, but the indignant tenant decided that they were trying to deceive him, which means he had to go to the end. And he filed a lawsuit against the owner of the apartment. The process took place in full, with the invitation of witnesses, photographic evidence and speeches from lawyers. As a result, the landlord was found to be right, and the plaintiff still cannot recover from this terrible injustice. Having learned that I was a journalist, he called me and recounted his misadventures in the most detail, and only with great difficulty did I manage to convince him that there was no point in coming to me personally with all the materials of the case. The victim of the judicial system really wanted his story to be known in his homeland. I take this opportunity to fulfill this request.
By the way, the mentioned deposit is perhaps the most popular reason for disputes between moving out tenants and the owner of the apartment. This deposit in Germany is called a kautzion, its size is equal to two or three months' rent. It is entered at the conclusion of the contract and is strictly regulated. The owner of the house must put the entire amount into a deposit in the name of the tenant. When he moves out, the account will be unblocked, but only if the landlord does not find anything to complain about. And there is certainly a reason.
Here it must be said that, when vacating an apartment, the previous tenant must not only take things out, but also work as a painter as a demobilization bonus. The thing is, typical finish walls in Germany are paintable wallpaper. Each new inhabitant receives a white apartment and paints it to his liking, but before leaving he needs to return everything to its original appearance. An exception can only be made for the kitchen - when Germans move, they usually do not try to take kitchen set, because the probability that it will fit into new apartment, not too high. Accordingly, there is no need to repaint the kitchen. If the furniture is almost new, they will try to resell it to new residents. This is what our predecessors did, for example.
In general, burghers change furniture often and with great pleasure. It is considered the norm to completely change the environment at least once every five years. And moving is a wonderful reason to get rid of excess belongings. Moreover, a simple rental of a van for a day will cost 120-150 euros, and the services of a company with loaders will cost at least 500-600 euros. And this is only if you do not have bulky furniture, and with it the price tag often rises to a thousand. If the previous furnishings still retain their marketable appearance, then they put them up on eBay. You can also call the Red Cross and report that you have an unnecessary sofa or closet. Among the wards of the service there are always those who need these things, they will come and take what they need.
The rent is cold and hot
Housing rent can only be paid by bank transfer. Usually, simultaneously with signing the contract, the tenant issues a long-term payment order to the bank and after that, all he needs to worry about is whether he has the required amount in his account at the beginning of the month. The cost of housing in Germany consists of “kalt” - cold and “warm” - hot parts. Kalt is the rental price itself, varm is housing maintenance and utilities. Typically this includes heating, water supply, sewerage, garbage removal, elevator, cleaning in the house and yard, and some other expenses of the owner, for example, payment for the work of the house manager, insurance, and so on. It was a revelation to me that the Germans do not receive any monthly receipts. Instead, during the year, a fixed amount is withdrawn from the subscribers’ account, and then a recalculation is made, after which the owner sends letters to the residents: if there was an excessive consumption of water, or there was a cold winter and the residents were diligently warming themselves, then they will have to pay several hundred extra. If, on the contrary, you saved, the overpaid amount will be returned. But this happens much less often.
The same applies to energy workers, whose services are not included in the “warm” and with whom the tenant has a direct contract. It should be noted here that the electricity and gas market in Germany is competitive. By default, having moved, a person becomes a subscriber of the organization with which the previous resident had an agreement. If its tariffs suit you, then you don’t need to do anything - in a few days you will receive an agreement by mail, select one of the tariff plans, sign the papers and send them back by mail. But if you wish, you can change the supplier to any of those who work in your area. The difference can be quite significant, especially if you are able to accurately calculate your energy consumption, including different time days. There are special websites where you can compare prices and choose the most profitable option.
Green kilowatts
Moreover, you can choose not only a supplier, but also an energy source. The Germans are obsessed with defense environment and fundamentally do not want the light bulbs in their homes to be powered by nuclear power plants. In this regard, contracts with energy companies clearly indicate where the energy comes from to the consumer. You can even choose tariff plan, in which all energy will be produced exclusively solar panels and wind turbines.
I was interested in the mechanism of how this is achieved. After all, electrons, as you know, cannot be signed, and you cannot stick a label on them. It turned out that the scheme was quite crafty. The company can only guarantee that at the same time you turn on the light bulb, it purchases the appropriate amount of energy from a trusted supplier. But, of course, there is no separate network into which energy is supplied, only wind generators.
On average, electricity costs Germans 25-30 cents per kilowatt. For a family of four this is approximately 80-90 euros per month. But the most serious article utility costs in Germany it is still heating. Of course, the climate here cannot be compared with Siberian, and the batteries are not kept on around the clock, even in winter. But fuel also costs much more.
District heating, by the way, is considered a German invention. But in our usual form - with thermal power plants and large boiler houses - it is rare. The hundred-thousandth city of Trier, for example, manages just fine without its heating plant and about summer blackouts hot water its inhabitants had never heard of it. Central heating today in Germany is called a communal boiler in the basement, running on fuel oil, diesel fuel or gas.
Heating and chimney sweeps
This is the most common method of heat supply, but there are other options, for example, electric floor heating or electric storage heaters, which operate at night, when energy is cheap, and release heat during the day. IN Lately Fireplaces for which special fireplaces are made from waste wood have gained popularity again. fuel briquettes. In our house, the rooms are installed connected to the chimney gas convectors, they need to be ignited by pressing a button.
By the way, all heating equipment in Germany is controlled by chimney sweeps. They not only check the condition of the equipment, but also measure the level of emissions into the atmosphere. Reducing carbon emissions is a new global priority for the Germans, which is why people in this profession walk around important and full of their own importance. When we learned in the fall that an inspector was coming to see us, we were at first delighted at the rare chance to see a live chimney sweep, hold his button and make a wish. But he entered the apartment with such a stern and serious expression on his face that we decided not to risk it.
Moreover, it immediately turned out that one of our convectors sends more harmful substances than it should be. The chimney sweep said that he would immediately write a threatening letter and demand that the owners of the apartment eliminate the violations within a week. Indeed, a few days later a technician came to us and tweaked something in the device. A week later, a chimney sweep showed up to check. He took measurements, and only when everything turned out to be normal did he allow himself to smile for the first time. Here we could no longer resist and asked him about the buttons. It turned out that they know this sign in Germany, and our chimney sweep willingly allowed us to make a wish.
We wished that our next apartment in Germany would be more like a Russian one.