Investor Guide
2026-10-10 08:18

Schriftform (written form, § 550 BGB): A Form Defect Lets Either Party End a 15-Year Lease Early

Schriftform is the form a lease for more than one year must meet under § 550 BGB; otherwise the lease runs for an indefinite period and can be terminated on statutory notice. For commercial leases text form — an exchange of e-mails will do — now suffices, but one essential agreement left out of text form can still undo the fixed term on which a supermarket's price rests.

What it is

A lease concluded for longer than one year without the required form is deemed concluded for an indefinite period; termination can take effect no earlier than one year after handover (§ 550 BGB). For commercial leases concluded since 1 January 2025, text form suffices (§ 578(1) sentence 2 BGB, as amended by the Fourth Bureaucracy Relief Act): a legible declaration on a durable medium that names the person making it (§ 126b BGB). For older leases, written form — the parties' handwritten signatures on the lease document (§ 126 BGB) — continued to apply up to and including 1 January 2026, or until an amendment agreed on or after 1 January 2025 (Art. 229 § 70(1) EGBGB). Since then, text form suffices for them too.
A lease caught by the rule can be terminated on the statutory notice for business premises — roughly six months. Notice must be given no later than the third working day of a calendar quarter, to the end of the following quarter (§ 580a(2) BGB).

Why it matters to investors

The rule is designed so that a buyer, who steps into the lease by law (§§ 566, 578 BGB), can see its terms from the lease documents (BGH, 27 September 2017, XII ZR 114/16). The same judgment held that clauses obliging the parties to cure form defects cannot by themselves prevent a termination. A party may not, however, use the missing form of a later agreement that benefits only itself to escape the lease. Either side, the tenant included, can use a defect — a well-known lever for reopening the rent (Part 7).
Text form eases the old trap of missing signatures and loose annexes without removing it. A change of rent agreed only by telephone still exposes a 15-year lease — and a price set at 20 times the rent, as in Part 11 — to roughly six months' notice.

What to check

• The complete chain of lease documents: the lease and every addendum, side letter and e-mail amendment.
• Every change to an essential term — rent, term, premises, indexation, cost allocation — recorded at least in text form.
• For a lease concluded before 2025, any termination for a form defect declared by 1 January 2026, while written form still applied.
• The handover date, which sets the earliest possible termination.
Related terms: Due Diligence · Wertsicherungsklausel · Ankermieter
Sources: BGB §§ 126, 126b, 550, 566, 578, 580a; EGBGB Art. 229 § 70; Fourth Bureaucracy Relief Act (BEG IV) of 2024; BGH, judgment of 27 September 2017, XII ZR 114/16; Gordon Real Estate Group, "German Prime Retail", Parts 7 and 11. Legal position as of 10 October 2026.
Photo: Peter Herrmann / Unsplash
This entry is general information and not legal or tax advice.