6. We have heard our house was bought by Heimstaden – what are the first steps?

First step – get to know each other in your house!

Ring the doorbell of your neighbors, inform them and organize a house meeting. In times of Corona it is best to go to the backyard with warm tea and blankets. You can find a brochure how this can work well here: deutsche-wohnen-protest.de/wp-content/u…
Set up a mailing list for the house and organize a group of active people. Get an email address for the house!

Second step – networking

Send one or more delegates to the Berlin-wide networking and local group meeting. In the Berlin-wide networking we determine central demands and coordinate the struggle of all houses, in the district groups is more space for questions and here we put pressure on the district administrations.

Third step – Right of first refusal or plan B

Find out if your house is located in an environmental protection area (Milieuschutzgebiet). You check it here for example: www.berliner-mieterverein.de/downloads/…

A. If your house is located in a protected area, the district can exercise the right of first refusal (link to question 1.). In this case it is important that you collect data about the house and the apartments (year of construction, number of residential units, number of commercial units, square meters, net cold rent, equipment). You can send this data, combined into a portfolio, proactively or on request to the housing companies and cooperatives as potential buyers. You can design the portfolio individually and briefly introduce yourself as a tenant.

B. If your house is outside of the milieu protection, then draw plan B (link to question plan B – fourth from below)