Unauthorised Subletting – The Detectives Of Kurtz Investigations Essen Provide Clarification

An elderly married couple had lived in a flat in Essen’s Südviertel for 34 years. Since the ink on the tenancy agreement had dried back in 1980, there had not been a single rent increase. Despite inflation, the couple had therefore lived for decades at the same price and were thus naturally far below current comparative rents in Essen. Last year, the husband of the later target person of Kurtz Detective Agency Essen passed away. Since then, the flat appeared too large for the target person. She allowed her son to move in and herself took a small retirement apartment (according to her own statement). However, the client of our private detectives in Essen, a private individual, remained unaware of this for months, although the tenancy agreement expressly requires the landlord’s consent for subletting.

Step 1: At the time of instruction, a residential unit on the ground floor of the apartment building in which the target flat was located stood vacant. With the client’s consent, one of our private detectives in Essen was thus able to infiltrate the building. A move, including a removal van, the carrying of a few items of furniture and empty removal boxes (contents not visible from the outside), was staged, thereby integrating a private detective of Kurtz Detective Agency Essen into the neighbourhood.

Subsequently, the investigator not only assumed the task of documenting when the target persons were present in the building (overnight stays being of particular importance), but also established contact with the other tenants in the house. From the latter, our private detective in Essen received numerous confirmations that the mother had moved out months earlier and that only the son had been seen in the building since. Furthermore, surveillance from the ground floor flat enabled admissible proof that the son slept in the property every night throughout the entire one-week observation period.

Step 2: Surveillance of the mother. Following a court hearing in the present case, the detectives of Kurtz Detective Agency Essen succeeded in commencing vehicle surveillance of the mother in Marktstraße. After a short drive and a stop at a supermarket, the target person arrived at a residential complex in Essen-Frohnhausen and entered the building with her shopping. The name of the target person appeared on both the doorbell plate and the letterbox.

Almost parallel to the 7-day surveillance (offset by 1 day) at and within the client’s property, an observer from Essen simultaneously took up position at this probable new residence of the mother and documented when she left and when she returned. The picture was clear: she spent the greater part of each day at this property and remained there every single night. Surveillance of her daily routine outside the flat was unnecessary, as this would have had no relevance to our case and would therefore have constituted an impermissible intrusion into the personal rights of the target person.

After a total of 8 days of surveillance by the private investigators of Kurtz Investigations Essen, the facts were ultimately clear. The surveillance was discontinued and the court-admissible detective report was handed over to the client and his solicitors. The success of our client in the legal dispute is hardly avoidable, and from an original rent increase of 18 per cent have now arisen detective costs of more than 10,000 euros, which will presumably be borne by the opposing party – moreover, the rent increase is, in all likelihood, still to be implemented.