Hello guys,
Person A hope you can help me. A tried to call the Beitragservice in Koeln but they refused to speak to me because my German wasn't very good.
Did you try it in English?
After a series of letters, Person A received one saying that if A don't reply within 4 weeks, it means that an Anmeldung of my flat is necessary (it looks a bit different from the letters I got before).
As NekoNova suggested: Either you pay including the total fee of 2013 (the federal state treaty is valid from 2013 on) or you join the resistance. According to the treaty you are required to make a "Anmeldung". According to the treaty it is an "administrative offence" if you would not make a "Anmeldung". It can be prosecuted with a money penalty which can be changed into a penalty of public labor or if you don't want to work into a prison penalty which will be as high as the price of numbers of "Tagessätze" will be. At the moment - because nobody knows the juridical value of this federal state treaty - this won't happen. But in the future no one knows how the "official" judgement about the treaty will develop. If you decide to join the resistance you go into risk. This risk is even higher than for a German because you are not able to express yourself in the administrative language of this country.
The administrative offence regulation does not have the juridical value of penal law although one may go finally into prison if the situation is like it. The Offence regulation is
BELOW penal law.
The problem for a foreigner: He does not know what is an "administrative offence" and what is an offence due to penal law.
Now, I've been living in this flat for two years, but the contract was in the name of my previous flatmate, who refused to pay the GEZ. What should I do now?
If your previous flatmate had a TV set or a Radio (which was cheaper) before January 1rst 2013 he was required to pay the fee. There are people who even did not recognize that obligation. But that was the legal situation according to the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal court for the German constitution (Grundgesetz)). Until December 31rst 2012 your flatmate was and is in legal obligation to pay the fee to the GEZ, which is now called Beitr"u"gsservice. If you were the owner of this equipment you have and had the obligation to pay - it depended on the ownership of electrical equipment.
If I pay, will I have to pay a fee for the whole of 2013 too? Or a bigger fee? And what happens if I don't pay?
Thank you in advance!
As I described above: the regulation is valid from January 1rst 2013 on and is being paid by the inhabitants of the flat. If your flatmate is not living anymore in the flat you will have to pay, if you don't want to go into resistance. If you go into resistance you go into risk.
The amount of the fee is always the same - per month.
It might be that the agency of the Public Broadcaster (Öffentlich-rechtliche Rundfunkanstalt) in your region may give you a money penalty for an adminstrative offence because already you ignored the federal state treaty. This would cause extra money you would have to pay out of your pocket. The amount of the administrative offence penalty depends on the case which is being dealt according to the "Verhältnismäßigkeit" (principle of proportionality) which is being used according to specific rules. Basically, the amount of the administrative offence penalty is low at first, especially if you are a foreigner because you don't know the language - which is one of the few privileges of being an alien.
At the moment they are all occupied by the insecure legal situation because nobody wants to move afraid of making a mistake.
There are good reasons to refuse the payment - one of them: it is totalitarian.
In this context I have to warn you that my advice is not that of a legal professional. It is not valid as a legal advice according to the German "Rechtsberatung". Thus, you might go also to a public legal advice office or to an attorney to get advice.
Autor