Rent debts can arise due to inability to pay and may lead to the loss of your accommodation.

If you receive citizen's allowance and are at risk of losing your home due to rent debts, the responsible municipal job center or the responsible joint institution can, in certain cases, compensate your debts upon application. You will usually receive this support in the form of a loan. In exceptional cases, you will receive a grant from the job center that does not have to be repaid.

In order to receive this support, one of the requirements is that you are unable to pay the rent arrears on your own. The decision as to whether you receive support is always a case-by-case decision, in which it is checked whether all the requirements for taking over your rent arrears are met. An examination is also carried out to establish why the rent debt or rent arrears have arisen.

In principle, only actual costs can be covered, i.e. no lump sums are granted. The responsible office will check whether the costs of your accommodation are reasonable according to the applicable guideline values and whether it is necessary to deviate from the guideline values due to special circumstances in individual cases.

The guideline values are higher the more people live together in the same accommodation and look after each other. This is called a joint household. A community of need means that the people not only live together, but also pay for food and things for each other. A community of need includes

• Persons aged 15 and over,
• Spouses who are not permanently separated,
• registered same-sex partners who are not permanently separated,
• Persons in a community of responsibility and commitment ("marriage-like community") or
• children who are younger than 25 and unmarried.

If you are older than 25, receive Citizen's Allowance and live together with relatives or in-laws in the same home and manage the household together, you are a household community. This means, for example, that you share the costs of rent, food and other household expenses.

If several people in an apartment do not form a community of need and therefore live in a household community, the responsible Jobcenter or the responsible joint institution will check whether the costs of accommodation are proportionate. This means that the accommodation costs are first divided up among all the people living in the home according to the per capita principle and then allocated proportionately to the corresponding benefit community.

If your municipal job center or your municipal joint institution comes to the conclusion that you will use the money for something other than settling your rent debts, the payment will be made directly to your landlord.

This is particularly the case if

• there are rent arrears that lead to termination of the tenancy,
• electricity or gas bills have not been paid and this has led to your electricity or gas being cut off,
• you are unable to use the money to pay your rent arrears due to illness or addiction problems, or
• there are indications of debt.

There is no legal entitlement to the assumption of your rent debts.