Summary

Several questions have arisen in media as well as in the case law of previous years concerning the residential lease contract and the related accessory expenses, ranging from what can be classified as an accessory expense up to what kind of agreements can the parties to the residential lease contract sign in respect to that. This article covers these topics comparatively to German law, which has, to a great extent, served as an example for Estonia’s regulation governing lease contracts. The authors indicate the direction in which Estonian case law has developed and whether and to what extent we should further consider the division of the maintenance obligation between the tenant and the landlord in relation to the definition of accessory expenses. Finally, the authors answer the question raised in the recent intention, created in the Ministry of Justice to amend the tenancy law, whether besides leaving the accessory expenses to the tenant, the parties should also be permitted to sign more extensive agreements on the division of repair obligation.