The Flat Share Trap

In Jena, the housing market for students is tight. The international student house (Internationales Studentenhaus) at Johannisplatz is taking advantage of this situation and is now primarily targeting international students, luring them into dubious tenancies.

It is not rare that newly arrived students are willing to pay a high price for a small flat. They tolerate poor living conditions and questionable rental agreements. Infamously, the international student house (Internationales Studentenhaus) at Johannisplatz has been exploiting the students’ inexperience and the difficult housing situation. In November 2022, Akrützel already reported on withheld security deposits, personal and legal threats from the landlord against the tenants, as well as on unannounced visits to the house’s flats.

To this day – two years after the article was published – our editorial team has been receiving messages from affected students. They too experienced problems when they asked the landlord to return their deposits after having moved out. In fact, their stories are overlapping: The issues already appeared while contacting the student house, in which case their written requests for their security deposits were left unanswered or were returned to the former tenants. If, however, a reply did arrive, the students’ requests were rejected – allegedly because of costs for maintenance work, administration, housekeeping, or handyman services.

Following the news coverage by Akrützel and MDR concerning the dubious circumstances in the international student house, it seems that the house at Johannisplatz has shifted its focus and is now primarily targeting international students. Coincidentally, those students who are especially reliant on finding flats at the start of a new semester. Separated from friends and family, they rarely have the chance to spontaneously spend the night at an acquaintance’s place. In many cases, they do not speak German yet, are not familiar with German tenancy laws, and thus are easily deceived by tenant traps. Currently, the student house’s online advertisement on the platform WG-Gesucht is deactivated; the posted room appears to be rented out. Right below this post, an announcement warns against a housing scam in the international student house, written in German and English.