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Comment by summarity | Hacker News Reader

> cultivate up to three marijuana plants at home

I give it 3 microseconds until every single new rental contract / landlord prohibits this (and consumption).

Also, here’s an article with slightly more info on limits and prohibited places: https://www.dw.com/en/berlin-celebrates-legal-cannabis-posse...

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1. There are further limits on the size of harvests, making growing at home pretty much infeasible. 2. German rental law is very restrictive. Essentially, for most purposes, you are the master of the place you inhabit. Such a restriction will probably not be legal and thus non-binding, even if stated in the contract.

I am living in Germany and am planning to grow some.

I do not see 1) at all, laws are pretty reasonable all around

My comments were based on the expert opinions given during the legislative process. I personally don't plan to grow.

Good to hear that it's okay for you. :)

Not sure which experts you are referring to, the ones I heard about it are pretty happy

I believe this video had the comments iI'm referring to. However, it has been a while since I watched it:

https://www.bundestag.de/dokumente/textarchiv/2023/kw45-pa-g...

Growing at home is not infeasable. The 50g concern dried weight. Its still not clear how the law will be interpreted, we will have to see what the courts will say.

I can't think of a law that would allow landlords to enforce that in a rental contract. Renting is heavily regulated in Germany.

Consumption is different, but the new law is very specific in what is allowed and what isn't, and an unconditional ban is unlawful, as is already the case with cigarettes.

Landlords successfully get people to adhere to all kinds of technically illegal rules. If you need a space, you sign whatever they give you. Waiting times for a consultation with renters associations in Berlin are 3-4 weeks right now.

For example, they often prohibit plants of certain sizes on balconies, and entirely elsewhere.

Legal? Maybe not - but here in reality you have little recourse.

Okay, but in that reality you're morally perfectly fine by just not telling your landlord. Landlords cannot legally visit you in the apartment unless they give you proper notice in advance and they must not keep any keys while the apartment is rented.

Just saying.

> Okay, but in that reality you're morally perfectly fine by just not telling your landlord.

This is the way :)

> Legal? Maybe not - but here in reality you have little recourse.

The recourse would be to simply not move out. Even if it's in the contract, illegal parts of the contract are void.

You sue the landlord immediately after signing the contract and get thousands of euros in a few years... Just be a member of Mieterverein, pay them that 70€ a year and you pay nothing else for the lawyer.

I know a few people who took way too expensive rental contract, sued and got the money back in court. It is annoying that you need to do this, but there is a way and it only costs your time.

Then you go to a Mieterschutzverein and put them in their place.

> If you need a space, you sign whatever they give you.

Exactly. And then you ignore the bullshit.

That is the nice thing about German contract law. If you as a private person (v.s. a head of a business) sign a contract, you are widely protected from unfair contract terms. This applies to any contract but especially employment or rent contracts.

Beware if you buy a house from a natural person though, even if the house is sold through a professional broker, you are pretty much on your own. And filing a private lawsuit later gets very expensive (and can get pretty nasty).

As renter protection in Germany is extremely high, and for example smoking or animals cannot be prohibited with a lot of difficulty, I don't see how that could be legal.

This is the case in the Netherlands, despite a better legalization status. I’ve never seen a rental allow growing cannabis. Some larger rental agencies even perform yearly inspections.

Yearly inspections, how can that be lawful in a EU country?

So the justification given is that if police find a scaled grow house operation going on, the landlord is fined and the house is seized/boarded up. So they are softly incentivized to regularly inspect and prevent such a situation.

However, I do believe it’s not absolutely mandatory. During COVID, I was able to cancel the yearly inspection twice.

Not sure if a landlord is able to dissalow this, as it does not damage the rental property i would be surprised if he is allowed to forbid it

Landlords can't forbid smokingo they certsinly vannot forbid growing Marihuana plants.

How high were you when you wrote this ;)

Dear dog :D that happens when you write English with an Android Keyboard that tries to correct your words into German language

This kind of restriction could be illegal, I think. Landlords have limited control over how tenants use and decorate their living spaces, I think.

That sounds comparatively fine, breaking a rental contract seems not as bad as breaking possession laws.

How would my landlord know what I do in my home?

The land owner may legally inspect the property and see it?

They have to formally inform you about that in advance and have valid reason to do so in Germany.

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