What is the Abschlagszahlung?
Understanding the Abschlagszahlung fee in German rental market, including its implications for furnished apartments and relationship to Mietpreisbremse
This is a fee for the previous tenant’s furniture and fitting, that they might ask you to pay upfront if you want to rent their flat. Sometimes these can be excessively high and are essentially bribes. Currently there is not much regulation governing this issue, and furnished flats are often harder to apply the Mietpreisbremse to.