75
[AskEurope] Fellow Europeans, what is the aspect of USA lifestyle that surprises you the most? (discuss.tchncs.de)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/europe@feddit.de
150 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

First of all, let's try to avoid American-bashing, and stay respectful to everyone.

I'll start: for me it's the tipping culture. Especially nowadays, with the recent post on !mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world with the 40% tip, it just seems so weird to me to have to pay extra just so that menu prices can stay low.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] 4 points 3 years ago (1 child)

In Germany HOAs aren't a thing and by law you have quite good tenant rights. for example once you have an open ended rental contract, your landlord can't really throw you out on their whim.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [โ€“] 1 point 3 years ago (2 children)

    Around here, they may not be able to arbitrarily throw me out, but they can decline to offer a new fixed-term lease when the current one expires, and rent automatically doubles if a fixed-term lease is not signed. Is that not a thing in Germany?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [โ€“] 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    next to no one gets fixed term leases here, and I think even if you would, after certain time, by law it implicitly changes into an open-ended one

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [โ€“] 2 points 3 years ago*

    It implicitly changes to an open-ended one here too, but again, at double the rent. It's obviously meant to coerce tenants into continuing to sign fixed-term leases and agreeing to whatever new terms the landlord feels like imposing.

    I envy you, that you actually have substantial protection under the law from malicious landlords.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [โ€“] 1 point 2 years ago

    There are just 4 or 5 legal reasons for a fixed term contract which have to be specified, and after a few (2 or 3) renewals (or the landlord lying about the reason), the contract becomes open end automatically.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent