Co-founder, Boomerent
Co-founder of Boomerent. Stephan spent 16 years leading national and international commercial real estate on the landlord side — in leadership roles at Hines, Cushman & Wakefield, and ECE, including as Director of Hines Asset Services (€6.5 bn AUM) and Head of Center Management for the Sony Center Berlin. He knows first-hand how leases and service-charge statements are built — and brings that knowledge to the tenant's side with Boomerent. Brings the real-estate expertise the analysis of commercial leases and service-charge statements is built on.
A March 2026 ruling by Germany's Federal Court of Justice strengthens commercial tenants: standard-form value-protection clauses are subject to fairness review — if they fail it, they are void from the outset, and overpaid rent can be reclaimed. Explained from the tenant's side.
German appellate courts disagree on whether a standard-form clause may pass maintenance costs on to commercial tenants without a cost cap. A Federal Court of Justice ruling is still pending.
For decades the “written-form trap” was the most feared formality problem in German commercial tenancy law – one unsigned amendment could unravel a 10-year lease term. Since the text-form reform, a new regime applies. This fact check debunks four persistent myths.