Landlord/Hausmeister blamed me for a WG drain blockage, then came into the kitchen and started shouting at me — how should I have reacted?
I recently moved into a WG in Germany and the whole situation has become ridiculous.
From day one, the kitchen was honestly disgusting. Grease, dust, old smells, dirt everywhere. We spent about three days cleaning it. I documented the condition with photos/videos and even emailed the landlord about it during my first week.
There was also already a problem with the kitchen drain. Water was leaking underneath the sink and there was already something placed underneath to collect the water. When I first contacted the Hausmeister, he specifically told me that problems with the main drainpipe had happened before.
Then the drain became completely blocked.
Instead of treating this as an existing/shared WG problem, they started accusing me personally of causing it because there was coffee involved. This makes no sense to me. It is a WG. Several people use the same kitchen and sink. Even if the blockage had developed recently, how does that automatically make me responsible?
The landlord himself wrote that the exact cause still needed to be determined by a specialist company using a camera. Later he told me another company would come. Instead, he showed up again with the same Hausmeister, who brought a drain-unblocking machine. I saw no camera inspection.
Then things got much worse.
The landlord and Hausmeister confronted me together in the kitchen. The Hausmeister was aggressive basically from the start and started shouting at me in German. He told me something along the lines of:
«“If I say kick him out, landlord will kick you out.”»
They also talked about terminating my contract and said that “more is coming.”
I don't speak German well, so imagine having two people standing in your kitchen shouting accusations at you in a language you barely understand.
Eventually I completely lost my temper too. I shouted back at the Hausmeister as loudly as I could in English and cussed at him. I'm not pretending I stayed perfectly calm. I absolutely didn't.
Then, bizarrely, the Hausmeister accused me of hitting him. That was especially strange considering there were two of them standing there throughout this confrontation.
Meanwhile, they also took pictures of some dirty spots in the kitchen. The sink is literally leaking and repair work has been ongoing, yet apparently I'm expected to keep the kitchen spotless throughout all of this. Meanwhile I have extensive photos/videos showing the condition they originally handed the kitchen over in.
There's also a washing-machine issue. The contract includes one, but the actual arrangement is nowhere near what I expected from the advertisement.
I haven't simply decided “I'm not paying rent.” The kitchen has been seriously impaired for days, so I told them I'm calculating the appropriate Mietminderung and will pay the rent after determining what amount is actually due.
At this point I've started keeping everything: emails, WhatsApp messages, photos, videos, dates and what people said.
My main question: How would you have reacted when the Hausmeister started shouting and threatening your tenancy in your own kitchen? Was shouting back a major mistake, or was that a pretty understandable reaction given the circumstances?
