Mietrecht: Calculation of dispute value for court fees in parallel negative declaratory and performance claims concerning modernization rent increases

In a decision concerning the calculation of court costs, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) fixed the dispute value for the appellate instance at €3,879.48, effectively adopting the higher value associated with the tenant's negative declaratory claim. The dispute arose from a tenancy conflict where the tenant filed a negative declaratory action to invalidate a one-sided rent increase based on modernization, while the landlord counterclaimed for payment of the increased rent. Because the counterclaim addressed the same subject matter as the main claim, the court determined that the dispute value must be based on the higher of the two, specifically the annual amount of the additional rent demanded by the contested modernization notices. The decisive legal basis for this valuation was § 41 Abs. 5 Satz 1 and § 45 Abs. 1 Satz 3 of the Courts’ Constitution Act (GKG), which stipulates that when a performance counterclaim concerns the same dispute subject matter, the value is determined by the higher of the claim amounts.