The Tenant Self-Disclosure Form: What Landlords Can and Can't Ask

Landlords may only ask questions in a tenant self-disclosure form (Mieterselbstauskunft) that they have a legitimate interest in for the specific rental decision. Questions about identity, income, occupation, and existing eviction judgments are allowed. Questions about family planning, religion, origin, or health are not, because those characteristics fall under the discrimination ban in Section 19 of the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG).

The standard: legitimate interest, not curiosity

The tenant self-disclosure form isn't a legally mandated document — it's a tool landlords developed themselves to check creditworthiness and need. The same standard applies to every single question: it has to have a recognisable connection to the specific rental decision. Questions that serve only general curiosity, or that intrude into private life without touching contract performance, aren't permitted, even if they're phrased politely.

These questions are allowed

Landlords may ask for your name, current address, date of birth, occupation and employer, net income, the number of people and pets moving in, if relevant to the apartment. They may also ask about pending eviction lawsuits or existing enforcement titles from previous tenancies, since those directly affect the risk of non-payment.

These questions are not allowed

Section 19 AGG protects against discrimination based on race or ethnic origin, gender, religion, disability, age, or sexual identity. Questions about family planning or wanting children, religious affiliation, nationality, health status, or disability are therefore not permitted in a tenant self-disclosure form. Asking about membership in a tenants' association (Mieterverein) also counts as impermissible, since it has no bearing on creditworthiness and can have a chilling effect.

One important exception: under Section 19(5) AGG, landlords who rent out no more than 50 apartments in total face lower requirements in their actual selection decision than large rental companies. That doesn't change the fact that the impermissible questions listed above stay impermissible in the self-disclosure form itself — the exception only affects the later choice among several permissible applications.

What happens if you answer an impermissible question incorrectly

For impermissible questions, German case law widely grants applicants the right to knowingly answer falsely, since an impermissible question can't create a duty to tell the truth. If it later comes out that an impermissible question was answered falsely, the landlord generally can't use that to challenge the lease or terminate it without notice. That's not the case for permissible questions: a deliberately false answer about income or existing eviction judgments can justify termination, because a genuine duty to disclose applies there.

How to handle an impermissible question in practice

You don't have to answer an impermissible question, and you can leave the field blank. In practice, at a group viewing with many competing applicants, that might stand out as incomplete. Quietly skipping an impermissible question, rather than visibly refusing to answer it, carries no legal downside, since the question never triggered a binding duty to disclose in the first place.

The self-disclosure form is usually just one piece of a larger application package alongside your SCHUFA report and other required documents — worth checking if you're assembling a full application.

Conclusion

A tenant self-disclosure form may only ask what's actually needed for the specific rental decision. Income, occupation, and past eviction judgments belong there; family planning, religion, and health don't. If you spot an impermissible question, you don't have to answer it truthfully — or at all.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to fill out the tenant self-disclosure form?

Legally it's voluntary, but in practice most landlords set aside applications without a completed self-disclosure before reviewing them further.

Can a landlord ask about my religion?

No. Questions about religious affiliation fall under the discrimination ban in Section 19 AGG and aren't permitted in the self-disclosure form.

Am I allowed to lie in response to an impermissible question?

For impermissible questions, no duty to tell the truth arises, so a false answer generally carries no legal downside. That's not true for permissible questions, like those about income.

Does the AGG also apply to private landlords with a single apartment?

Section 19(5) AGG eases the selection decision for landlords with up to 50 apartments in total. The impermissible questions in the self-disclosure form itself are unaffected by that.