Legal Counsellor

The increase in social security contributions at the turn of the year was intended to reduce the financial bottlenecks in health and long-term care insurance. However, not only health and long-term care insurance are affected by financial challenges, but also many other companies that have not yet fully recovered from the economic losses caused...

The Civil Senate of the Federal Court of Justice responsible for banking and stock exchange law ruled on February 4, 2025 that the clauses on deposit fees (negative interest) in the contracts of banks and savings banks for deposits in savings and call money accounts are invalid (Ref. XI ZR 183/23; XI ZR 161/23; XI ZR 65/23; XI ZR 61/23). The...

For many people in Germany, real estate is a safe and popular investment. However, anyone who sells their property too early must pay tax on the profit from the sale. The premature sale of a property is considered a speculative transaction. In this article, attorney Sascha C. Fürstenow outlines the most important tax law aspects that may be...

A new record was broken in 2023 - a total of around 32,600 money laundering offenses were recorded in Germany according to criminal statistics. The FIU reported over 330,000 suspected money laundering cases in 2022 and the number of reports is increasing year on year. Nowadays, it is not only organized crime that is under the microscope of the...

Update 26.09.2023: In the meantime, DSL Bank has finally paid out the called partial loan to the developer. A serious damage for the client could thus be averted.   In an ongoing legal dispute, a client who used the services of attorney Sascha C. Fürstenow concluded a construction loan with DSL Bank for the construction of a residential...

Fixed interest rate: What is that? When taking out a loan, in addition to the actual loan amount, you always think about the agreed interest rate and the term. The interest rate can be fixed or variable. In order to have a certain security, especially with a fixed interest rate, this is usually guaranteed by the bank for a certain period of time,...

Many providers would like to attract owners with the new real estate partial sale and promise thereby profit and in particular for pensioners a safe age precaution. But even with this model, there may be disadvantages and actual as well as legal problems. This article looks at the potential gains, but also the associated risks, from a partial...

In the case at hand, the potential buyers of a property had paid a reservation fee in the amount of €4,200 and demanded its repayment after they had refrained from purchasing the property. The Federal Court of Justice examined the legality of this fee in the context of a reservation contract and reached a landmark judgment (judgment of April 20,...

Dresden Higher Regional Court rules in favor of injured consumers of online sports betting; this could also affect online gambling. OLG Dresden rules in favor of injured consumers of online sports bets This is the judgment of the OLG Dresden (Az.: 13 U 1753/22) of 31.05.2023, with which now further reliable case law of a court of higher instance...

Many people who own valuable objects, such as real estate or securities, at some point have the idea of giving them away within the family or to friends. That thereby a tax, the so-called gift tax accrues, know thereby still some. That one can reduce this, if one arranges it skillfully, completely legally or also completely avoid, however no...

The managing director of a legal entity such as a GmbH (limited liability company) is legally obliged to file for insolvency in the event of certain preconditions of a company crisis. But what are these conditions? And what are the consequences if such a petition is filed too late or not at all? In the following legal advice, attorney Sascha C....

Contaminated sites represent a risk that should not be neglected, especially when acquiring commercial real estate. If they are not recognized in time or even ignored, this can lead to high costs. But who pays for these costs? And how can I, as the seller of a property, indemnify myself against possible later liability claims? The following legal...

Postbank has a hard time helping its bank customer in the case of a subsequently discovered erroneous bank transfer; at one point, Postbank did not even respond to lawyer submissions. What had happened: Bank customer transferred €5,000.00 and immediately thereafter canceled the order: Hope for refund A bank customer of Postbank represented by...

For years, the borrowers of ADAXIO AMC GmbH or its legal predecessor have been in dispute. GMAC-RFC Bank GmbH, as the legal predecessor of ADAXIO AMC GmbH, concluded thousands of real estate purchase contracts with consumers until it returned its banking license to GMAC-RFC Bank GmbH in 2008. Important note: this article was published in German...

In its court ruling of November 8, 2016, XI ZR 552/15, the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof - BGH) also declares loan fees in home savings contracts to be unlawful; limitation issue Important note: the the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof - BGH) ruling presented here is from 2016, and the case law contained therein may be...

To increase the pension through one's own real estate without having to sell it completely sounds very tempting, especially for people of advanced age. Through the pension system in Germany, not all needs can be met and so other more lucrative ways must be found to improve the financial situation. These methods differ greatly from each other and...

When buying a condominium, from the point of view of the buyer, it is important that the purchase contract is legally in order and not to the detriment of the buyer. In addition to the purchase contract, the declaration of division (Teilungserklärung) must then be examined as a further important document.   On the contract of sale of a...

With the German Act on the Protection of Trade Secrets (GeschGehG), which came into force on 26 April 2019, the EU Directive on the Protection of Secrets was implemented and serves to better protect confidential know-how and trade secrets from illegal acquisition, use and disclosure. This means that the marginal regulations concerning the...

Misuse of credit cards, giro cards etc. after card and PIN have been intercepted or stolen from the post office / mailbox Unfortunately, it seems to be becoming increasingly common that when a credit card or giro card is sent by post and the bank subsequently sends the corresponding PIN, the bank card and PIN either do not reach the bank...

It can be difficult to retrieve an incorrectly made bank transfer, but it is possible under certain circumstances, which is why you should always try to retrieve it from your own bank.   The facts of the case: retrieval of a transfer in the event of fraudulent recipient of funds A buyer buys a machine on the Internet. The seller requires a...