Conny.de - Lowered my rent, but the commission was INSANE (5000€)! Read this before you sign a contract with them

Just wanted to share my experience with Conny.de for lowering rent in Berlin. Figured it might be helpful for anyone considering using them, because while they did get my rent down, the commission was a HUGE shock, and I wish I'd understood the fine print better.

The Good: They successfully negotiated my rent down by €175 a month. That's definitely a win.

The Bad (and the Ugly): I thought the commission would be around €2200. It ended up being close to €5000. Yeah, you read that right. And while I didn't have to pay them that directly out of my own pocket, they took the entire amount from the money my landlord had to pay back.

Here's the Catch (It's in the AGB):

Their commission structure is... complicated. It's all in their terms and conditions (AGB), but it's not exactly easy to grasp. Here's the breakdown as I understand it:

  • Standard Commission: 6 times your monthly rent reduction. So, €175 x 6 = €1050 + VAT. Okay, that's manageable.
  • Retroactive Payments (THIS IS THE KILLER): They take 100% (plus VAT) of all the extra rent you've already paid your landlord before Conny officially contacted them. For me, this was about TWO YEARS of overpaid rent. This is what made the commission so massive. They took it all from the landlord's repayment.
  • Security Deposit (Mietkaution) Too: They even took the extra bit of my security deposit that I'd overpaid.

TL;DR: Conny lowered my rent, but they took a HUGE chunk of the money my landlord owed me as their commission. I didn't have to pay them directly, but it still felt like a massive loss.

Edit:

A lot of people are asking why I didn't understand the commission structure better before signing. Fair question! Here's the thing: I did do research beforehand. I read a lot of online reviews, forum posts, and articles about Conny.de. And many of those reviews, especially older ones, painted a very different picture of the costs.

Many people reported getting significant sums of money back from their landlords after Conny took their cut. The commission was often described as a percentage of the total recovered, or a certain number of months' worth of the rent reduction. This led me to believe I'd be in a similar situation – that I'd get a substantial portion of the retroactive payments.

What I didn't realize is that Conny has significantly increased their commission over time. It's been a gradual process, but they've gone from taking a portion of the retroactive payments to taking 100% of them, plus any overpaid portion of the Mietkaution (security deposit).

So, the TL;DR of this edit is:

Outdated Information: A lot of the information online about Conny.de's pricing is outdated. Don't rely on older reviews.

Continuous Price Increases: Conny has been steadily increasing their commission, culminating in the current model where they take all retroactive payments and the overpaid deposit.

What You Get Now: Currently, if you use Conny, you're essentially getting only the future rent reduction. You won't see any of the money your landlord has to pay back for past overpayments, or for an overpaid security deposit. That all goes to Conny.

I hope this clarifies things. My main point in posting this wasn't to say Conny is illegal or a complete scam (they did lower my rent), but to warn people about the current reality of their commission structure, which is very different from what many people might expect based on older information.

Always, always read the current AGB! And maybe consider alternatives like the Mieterverein, especially if you've been overpaying for a long time.