Berliners face huge rent bills after court overturns cap

Tens of thousands of tenants in Berlin are facing crippling financial problems after the capital’s rent controls were overturned by Germany’s highest court. The ruling, a hefty blowto the city’s Left-wing government, has landed many residentswith bills amounting to thousands of euros because more than a year’s worth of rent reductions have been retroactively cancelled. Up to half amillion people must nowpay back the money they had saved through the rent cap. In February last year Berlin’s ruling senate introduced themost aggressive package of rent controls applied in Germany. The lawfroze the rent on 1.5 million homes in an attempt to resolve a shortage of affordable housing.