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| Friedhelm Adolfs on his arrival at the regional court in Duesseldorf, Germany |
A 75-year-old man is being thrown out of his home of 40 years in Germany after neighbours complained he was disturbing them by smoking.
In a case which has attracted national interest[ed] and divided opinion in Germany, a court in Düsseldorf has ruled that Friedhelm Adolfs, a retired caretaker, must vacate his flat by the end of the year.
Mr Adolfs, who has become known as “Smoker Adolfs” in the German press, has been fighting an eviction notice from his landlady in the courts for a year and a half.
In many countries, he would have been forced to leave long before now. But tenants’ rights are strictly protected in Germany, and Mr Adolfs’ lawyers successfully argued that he could not legally be evicted simply for smoking.
But the court upheld the eviction because the pensioner had not taken sufficient steps to ventilate his flat or prevent smoke passing into the communal hall. He had not even emptied his ashtrays, the court said, and his neighbours had been forced to endure an “unacceptable and intolerable odour”. » | Justin Huggler, Berlin | Thursday, June 26, 2014
