The traditional Bateau Ivre restaurant on Heinrichplatz in Berlin-Kreuzberg will not be cleared for the time being. The eviction date announced for June 8 has been postponed.
The landlord met the operator with an offer with which the rental agreement can be continued until the regular end (December 31, 2022).
For this, Aktaş, who took over the restaurant in 2019, had to pay the outstanding rent of EUR 62,000 due by the end of this year. The operator had asked visitors for help via notices on the shop windows, around 25,000 euros had been collected through donations. The operator transferred the sum on June 3, and a receipt for payment was sent to the landlord.
In a letter available to the Tagesspiegel, the bailiff informed the operator on June 7 that he had not yet received the money. However, the landlord has agreed to postpone the eviction date.
Aktaş is also informed of the new eviction date of June 15th. However, if the sum is credited by June 10th, it would not be cleared.
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The landlord’s lawyer contradicted Aktaş’s descriptions of the fact that two months’ rent should be vacated during the pandemic. During the lockdown, two monthly rents were waived in 2020 and others reduced.
The default in rent payments of “almost 40,000 euros” since June 2020 ultimately led to termination without notice and a claim for eviction. No rent has been paid since February 2022.
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The landlord, who has been a neighbor in the neighborhood for 40 years, is “very well aware of his socio-political responsibility,” said his lawyer. Preserving the Bateau Ivre is very important to him, “but with economically responsible people who guarantee that the property will also be on a sound financial footing in the future”. He has already found a new tenant who will continue to run the restaurant in 2023 under the same conditions.
