Buying Into a WEG With Kids: What the Owners' Community Can and Can't Regulate About Child Noise
If you buy an apartment in Munich as part of a Wohnungseigentümergemeinschaft (WEG), the owners' community can pass a Hausordnung by simple majority vote at the Eigentümerversammlung, under Section 19 Abs. 2 Nr. 1 WEG, but it runs into the exact same legal wall that applies in rental housing: it cannot ban or specifically restrict ordinary child noise. The Bundesgerichtshof's landmark 2017 decision (Az. VIII ZR 226/16), confirming that noise from age-appropriate children's behavior is fundamentally something other residents have to tolerate, applies here too, this isn't a tenancy-only protection. What a WEG's Hausordnung can validly set are general, evenly applied quiet hours, typically 22:00 to 7:00 for night rest, with an optional midday quiet period, rules that happen to also affect when children can be loud, without singling children out as a category. If another owner in your WEG genuinely believes a rule violation occurred, the property manager (Verwalter) is the first point of contact, expected to act as part of ordnungsmäßige Verwaltung, proper management, and the realistic escalation path runs through conversation, then a written warning, then a formal Abmahnung, before anything reaches court.
The Official Rule
Families weighing a home purchase in a Munich WEG sometimes worry that owning rather than renting means facing a stricter, more enforceable set of noise rules from fellow owners. The actual legal picture is more reassuring than that.
A WEG’s Hausordnung is a real, binding document, adopted through the community’s own governance process. ImmoAdmin Daul’s explainer and weg-wissen.de’s reference guide both confirm that setting a Hausordnung falls under ordnungsmäßige Verwaltung, proper management, explicitly assigned to the Eigentümerversammlung’s decision-making authority under Section 19 Abs. 2 Nr. 1 WEG, and is adopted or changed by simple majority vote at that assembly.
But this authority runs into the exact same legal boundary that applies in rental housing. lpe-immobilien.com’s WEG-specific noise guidance is explicit: prohibiting Kinderlärm outright is not permissible, because the Bundesgerichtshof’s landmark 22 August 2017 decision (Az. VIII ZR 226/16) already established that noise emissions from age-appropriate childlike behavior are fundamentally something to be tolerated, a principle that applies regardless of whether the building is rented or owner-occupied. Kinderlärm carries this specific legal protection and generally has to be accepted even when it’s subjectively found disturbing.
| Rule type | Valid? |
|---|---|
| General quiet hours applying equally to everyone (typically 22:00-7:00, optional midday rest) | Yes, this is a standard, permissible Hausordnung provision |
| A rule specifically banning or restricting children's noise as its own category | No, this conflicts directly with the 2017 BGH ruling's core principle |
| Rules regulating shared-space use generally (bike storage, stairwell use, communal areas) | Yes, provided it doesn't reach into Sondereigentum or unentziehbare Rechte |
What a Hausordnung can validly regulate is general use of shared spaces and evenly applied quiet hours, ImmoAdmin Daul’s guidance notes it can’t reach into Sondereigentum, individual unit ownership rights, or unentziehbare Rechte, inalienable rights, and permissible provisions specifically include standard quiet hours like the 22:00 to 7:00 night-rest window, with an optional midday rest period, rules that happen to affect when everyone, including children, needs to be quieter, without making children the specific target of a stricter standard.
If a genuine dispute arises, the property manager is the designated first responder, not a direct court filing. Haufe’s professional legal-practice reference and weg-wissen.de both describe the realistic escalation path: the Verwalter is expected to act to maintain proper management when a violation is alleged, typically following a graduated sequence, conversation first, then a written warning, then a formal Abmahnung, well before the dispute would reach a court.
What Real People Say
Property management professionals handling WEG disputes describe child-noise complaints as a recurring but generally resolvable friction point, precisely because the legal baseline is already well-established and consistent, ordinary child noise is protected, the actual disputes tend to center on genuinely excessive or non-age-appropriate situations rather than everyday play and running around. Advisors consistently note that a WEG attempting to write a children-specific noise restriction into its Hausordnung is on genuinely weak legal ground if it’s ever challenged, and recommend against adopting such provisions even if a vocal minority of owners pushes for them.
Families considering a WEG purchase specifically for the long term describe real reassurance in learning that the same legal protection they’d have as renters carries over to ownership, the mechanism for resolving disputes changes, running through a Verwalter and owners’ assembly rather than a landlord, but the underlying tolerance for normal childhood noise doesn’t weaken simply because the building is owner-occupied.
Step by Step
- Before buying into a WEG, ask to see the current Hausordnung and check whether it sets general, evenly applied quiet hours rather than anything singling out children specifically.
- Know that a Hausordnung provision specifically restricting child noise is on weak legal footing, if you encounter one, it’s worth raising at the next Eigentümerversammlung rather than assuming it’s automatically enforceable.
- If your own family’s noise is questioned, understand the 2017 BGH ruling’s protection for ordinary, age-appropriate behavior applies to you as an owner just as it would to a renter.
- If you believe another owner’s noise genuinely crosses from ordinary into excessive, start with the Verwalter, not a direct legal filing, as the expected first point of contact under proper management duties.
- Expect a graduated resolution process: a conversation first, then a written warning, then a formal Abmahnung, before anything realistically reaches a court.
Compliance Note
This page explains the general legal framework around WEG Hausordnung rules and child noise under German condominium ownership law (WEG), but this is not legal advice, and specific situations can depend on your individual WEG’s rules and circumstances. For your specific situation, consult a lawyer specializing in Wohnungseigentumsrecht (condominium ownership law) or contact your Verwalter.
FAQ & Common Pitfalls
Can our WEG pass a rule specifically banning children from playing in the shared stairwell or courtyard during certain hours?
A WEG can generally set general quiet hours that apply evenly to everyone, but it runs into a real legal problem if a rule is written or applied specifically to target children's noise as its own category, rather than as a general, evenly applied quiet-hours rule. The 2017 BGH decision's core principle, that ordinary childlike noise is fundamentally something to be tolerated, doesn't stop being relevant just because the building is owner-occupied rather than rented.
What's actually the difference between a general quiet-hours rule and one that improperly singles out children?
A general rule, say, no loud activity anywhere in shared spaces between 22:00 and 7:00, applies to everyone equally regardless of age or cause and is the kind of rule a WEG Hausordnung can validly adopt. A rule that specifically names children's play, or sets a lower noise threshold only for child-generated sound, runs directly against the legal principle that ordinary child noise gets special tolerance, not special restriction.
If another owner in our WEG genuinely disturbs the building with excessive noise from their kids, do we have any real recourse?
Yes, but the bar is genuinely about whether the noise goes beyond ordinary, age-appropriate behavior, not simply whether it's noticeable or occasionally annoying. If it does cross that line, the property manager (Verwalter) is meant to be the first point of contact as part of their ordnungsmäßige Verwaltung duties, with a graduated approach, a conversation, then a written warning, then a formal Abmahnung, as the realistic path before anything reaches a court.
Does buying instead of renting change our family's actual noise rights at all?
The underlying legal protection for ordinary child noise, rooted in the 2017 BGH ruling's reasoning, doesn't functionally change between renting and owning. What does change is the mechanism around it, a WEG Hausordnung comes from a majority vote of fellow owners rather than a landlord's own terms, and enforcement runs through a Verwalter and the WEG's own governance structure rather than a landlord-tenant relationship.