1896de Book2 Chapter07 Title03 Part02

GERMAN CIVIL CODE OF 1896

• Based on the English Translation by: Wang, Chung Hui (1907). The German Civil Code, translated and annotated with historical introduction and appendices. London: Stevens and Sons. [available on Archive.org]

BOOK II. Law of Obligations.

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Chapter VII. Particular Kinds of Obligations.

Title III. Ordinary Lease, Usufructuary Lease.

Section 581.

• [I] By a contract of usufructuary lease the lessor is bound to give to the lessee during the term of the lease the use of the object leased and the enjoyment of its fruits, in so far as they are to be considered as products according to the rules of proper husbandry. The lessee is bound to pay to the lessor the rent agreed upon.
• [II] The provisions relating to an ordinary lease apply mutatis mutandis to a usufructuary lease, in so far as a contrary intention does not appear from 582 to 597.

Section 582.

• A lessee of agricultural land shall make all customary repairs at his own expense, e.g., those of the inhabited and industrial buildings, roads, ditches and fenoes.

Section 583.

• A lessee of agricultural land may not, without permission of the lessor, undertake any change in the economic purpose of the land affecting the mode of cultivation beyond the term of the lease.

Section 584.

• If in the lease of agricultural land the rent is measured by years, it is payable after the expiration of each year of the lease on the first business day of the following year.

Section 585.

• The right of pledge of the lessor of agricultural land may be enforced for the entire rent, and is not subject to the limitation specified in 563. It extends to the fruits of the land and to all things which under 715 (5) of the Code of Civil Procedure are not subject to judicial attachment.

Section 586.

• [I] If a piece of land with its appurtenant stock is leased, the duty to preserve the individual units composing the stock is imposed upon the lessee.
• [II] The lessor is bound to replace any units composing the stock which have perished in consequence of a circumstance for which the lessee is not responsible. The lessee shall, however, make good from the offspring the ordinary decrease in the animals included in the stock, in so far as this is in accordance with the rules of proper husbandry.

Section 587.

• If the lessee of a piece of land takes the appurtenant stock at an appraised value under the obligation to return it on the termination of the lease at the appraised value, the provisions of 588, 589 apply.

Section 588.

• [I] The lessee bears the risk of accidental destruction or accidental deterioration of the stock. He may dispose of the individual units thereof within the limits of proper husbandry.
• [II] The lessee shall preserve the stock in accordance with the rules of proper husbandry, in the condition in which it is delivered to him. Any units supplied by him become the property of the lessor if incorporated in the stock.

Section 589.

• [I] The lessee shall return to the lessor the stock existing at the time of the termination of the lease.
• [II] The lessor may refuse to accept any units included in the stock supplied by the lessee which, according to the rules of proper husbandry, are superfluous for the land or are too valuable; upon his refusal the ownership of the rejected units passes to the lessee.
• [III] If the total appraised value of the units received is greater or less than the appraised value of the units to be returned, the difference shall be made good in the former case by the lessee to the lessor; in the latter case, by the lessor to the lessee.

Section 590.

• The lessee of a piece of land has, by way of security for his claims against the lessor in respect of the leased stock, a right of pledge over the several units composing the stock which have come into his possession. The provision of 562 applies mutatis mutandis to the right of pledge

Section 591.

• A lessee of agricultural land is bound to return the land after the termination of the lease in the condition produced by proper husbandry continued during the term of the lease until the return of the land. This applies especially to the tillage.

Section 592.

• If a lease of agricultural land ends during the course of a leasing year, the lessor shall make compensation for any outlay which the lessee has incurred upon fruits not yet gathered but, according to the rules of proper husbandry, to be gathered before the end of the leasing year, in so far as such outlay is incurred in the course of proper husbandry and does not exceed the value of these fruits.

Section 593.

• [I] The lessee of a farm shall, on the termination of the lease, leave behind so much of the existing agricultural products as is necessary for the continuance of the husbandry up to the time when a new supply of the same or similar products will presumably be obtained, without regard to the question whether he received such products on entry upon the lease.
• [II] In so far as the lessee is bound to leave behind agricultural products in greater quantity or of better quality than he received on entry upon the lease, he may demand compensation for the value from the lessor.
• [III] The lessee shall leave behind the existing stock of manure produced upon the farm, without being entitled to compensation for its value.

Section 594.

• [I] If the lessee of a farm take the farm on the basis of an appraisement of its economic condition with the provision that its return on the termination of the lease is likewise to be made on the basis of such an appraisement, the provisions of 589 pars. 2, 3 apply mutatis mutandis to the return of the farm.
• [II] The same rule applies, if the lessee receives supplies on the basis of an appraisement with such a provision, to the return of the supplies which he is bound to leave behind.

Section 595.

• [I] If, in the lease of a piece of land or of a right, the term of the lease is not fixed, notice to terminate the lease may be given only for the end of a leasing year; it shall be given, at the latest, on the first business day of the half-year on the expiration of which the lease is to terminate.
• [II] These provisions apply, in the case of a lease of a piece of land or of a right, also to the cases in which notice to terminate the lease may be given before its expiration, with observance of the statutory term.

Section 596.

• [I] The right to give notice specified in 549 par. 1, does not belong to a usufructuary lessee.
• [II] The lessor is not entitled to give notice to terminate the lease under 569.
• [III] Notice to terminate the lease under 570 may not be given.

Section 597.

• If the lessee does not return the object leased after the termination of the lease, the lessor may demand as compensation for the time during which the object is detained, the rent agreed upon in the proportion which the emoluments which the lessee during that time has derived or might have derived, bear to the emoluments of the entire year of lease. Proof of further damage is admissible.