Convenience Translation. This document is for information purposes only and not legally binding. The sole legally binding version is the German text Allgemeine Geschäftsbedingungen.
1. Scope of application
1.1 These Terms and Conditions shall apply to agreements on the rental of event rooms or parts thereof as well as catering services and all other related services provided by BESONDERE ORTE Umweltforum Berlin GmbH (hereinafter referred to as "BESONDERE ORTE" or "Lessor") to the Customer (hereinafter referred to as "Organizer" or "Lessee").
1.2 The Lessee's terms and conditions shall only apply if expressly agreed in writing.
2. Conclusion of contract, -partners
2.1 Contracts require the text form.
2.2 If the Lessee is not the organizer himself or if a commercial intermediary or organizer is engaged by the Lessee, the Lessee undertakes to impose all obligations of the contract, including the General Terms and Conditions, on the organizer/third party and to ensure that the organizer/third party complies with them.
2.3 BESONDERE ORTE shall provide the services requested on the basis of individual orders placed by the Lessee. Each individual order shall be based on these GTC, with the agreements in the respective individual order taking precedence over these GTC.
2.4 The specific details (time, number of persons, venue, catering, etc.) of the services requested by the Lessee shall be ordered separately. BESONDERE ORTE undertakes in the individual orders to organize and arrange the services for the Lessee.
a. This shall include, among other things, the provision of premises or partial areas in premises which correspond to the ordered services with regard to the venue, equipment and capacity of the premises or partial areas.
b. Catering and other gastronomic services include, depending on the agreement, the provision of food and beverages on specific occasions at any venue, e.g. in buffet form or à la carte ("Catering Services"). Lessee's attention is drawn to the fact that, depending on the agreement, Lessor may provide the catering services itself or commission third parties to do so.
c. BESONDERE ORTE shall not be liable for the usability of equipment of a special character, such as an organ, due to the particular sensitivity of the aforementioned equipment, but shall be obligated to endeavor to ensure that such equipment is usable.
2.5 Offers for individual orders and compilations of offers by BESONDERE ORTE shall not be binding. The Lessee shall submit a binding offer for the conclusion of an individual order by sending the signed order confirmation in writing or in text form. BESONDERE ORTE shall accept the offer by sending a signed copy of the Lessee's order in writing or in text form.
2.6 If the Lessee amends binding offers made by BESONDERE ORTE, this shall be deemed to be a rejection of BESONDERE ORTE's offer and a binding new offer by the Lessee.
3. Services and Prices
3.1 The Lessee shall be obligated to pay the prices agreed upon for such services.
3.2 The agreed prices are net prices, which are subject to the applicable statutory value-added tax.
3.3 If, after conclusion of the contract, in particular during assembly and dismantling or during the event, additional services not contractually agreed are ordered by the Lessee in writing or verbally, these services shall be remunerated in accordance with the price list valid at the time of the order.
3.4 If the price of an individual cost element changes after the conclusion of the contract, BERSONDERE ORTE shall be entitled to change the price of the final product as well, but only to the extent that the change in the price of the respective preliminary product has a proportionate effect on the price of the final product.
3.5 Furthermore, BESONDERE ORTE may adjust prices at its reasonable discretion if the costs attributable to this contract increase or decrease due to circumstances which occur after the conclusion of the contract and which could not have been foreseen with certainty and specificity.
a. A price adjustment may be made if there are typically no or hardly any changes in cost components that BESONDERE ORTE can influence, such as procurement costs for food. BESONDERE ORTE may only make such price increase once per contract term and only to the extent that the price increase does not generate profits in excess of covering the increase in the aforementioned costs. BESONDERE ORTE shall reduce prices to the extent that the cost reduction is not temporary.
b. Increases may only be used to the extent that they are not offset by decreases in costs in the same area of the business.
c. In the event of a price increase, the Lessee shall be entitled to terminate the contract within two weeks of receipt of the notification of the increase. The right of termination shall only apply to the service affected by the price increase. When notifying the Customer of the price increase, BESONDERE ORTE shall specifically inform the Customer of any right of termination and the notice period as well as of the consequences of a termination not received in due time.
4. Withdrawal/Cancellation by the BESONDERE ORTE
4.1 Notwithstanding any further agreements, BESONDERE ORTE shall be entitled to rescind the contract for objectively justified reasons or to terminate the contractual relationship for good cause, in particular if:
a. force majeure or other circumstances beyond BESONDERE ORTE's control make it impossible to fulfill the contract;
b. Events are booked under misleading or false statements of material facts, e.g. of the organizer or purpose, the knowledge of which would have prevented BESONDERE ORTE from entering into a contract;
c. there is a serious breach of contract on the part of the Lessee, in particular: failure to observe the terms and conditions, exceeding the contractually agreed noise level, significantly exceeding the specified number of visitors, and unauthorized sale of food and beverages;
d. the BESONDERE ORTE has reasonable grounds to believe that the event may jeopardize the smooth operation of the business, the safety or the reputation of the BESONDERE ORTE in the public (according to the guidelines Events BO Churches), cf. clause 12.2;
e. there is a violation of Sections 2.2 or 12.1, and due to this violation, substantial interests of the BESONDERE ORTE are violated.
f. the Lessee is a limited liability company, the managing partner of a limited liability company dies and the Lessor must therefore fear violations of contractual obligations of the Lessee. In such cases, the LESSOR reserves the right to assert claims for damages.
4.2 Rescission/termination shall be made in writing or in text form to the Lessee.
5. Rescission by the Lessee
5.1 The Lessee shall be granted the right to withdraw from the contract. Such withdrawal must be made in writing or in text form to the BESONDERE ORTE and is possible free of cancellation charges up to the 121st day prior to the event.
Thereafter, the Lessee shall be charged the following cancellation fee by BESONDERE ORTE - if applicable, in addition to the services pursuant to Sections 5.2 and 5.3:
a. from the 120th to the 90th day prior to the event:
25 % of the amount stated in the contract under "Rooms" and "Technology/Equipment" in the case of a lump sum, the pro-rata amounts for "Rooms" and "Technology/Equipment",
b. from the 89th to the 60th day before the event:
50% of the amount stated in the contract under "rooms" and "technical/equipment" in the case of a lump sum, the amounts proportionate to "rooms" and "technical/equipment",
c. from the 59th to the 30th day before the event:
75% of the amount stated in the contract under "Rooms" and "Technical/equipment" in the case of a lump sum, the amounts pro-rated for "Rooms" and "Technical/equipment".
d. Cancellation shall be excluded from the 29th day or later. The Lessee shall remain obligated to perform vis-à-vis BESONDERE ORTE.
The Lessee shall be entitled to prove that no damage was incurred at all or that the damage was significantly lower than the lump sum.
5.2 To the extent that BESONDERE ORTE has commissioned services from third parties at the request of the Lessee, the Lessee shall bear any costs arising therefrom in the event of a withdrawal for which the Lessee is responsible. Section 9 shall remain unaffected.
5.3 Agency services already rendered at the time of the notice of withdrawal shall be paid to BESONDERE ORTE as agreed, irrespective of the time of withdrawal. In the event of a withdrawal from the 120th day prior to the event, however, the remuneration for the agency services shall amount to at least 50% of the agreed remuneration.
However, the Lessee is entitled to prove that no damage was incurred at all or that the damage was significantly lower than the lump sum.
5.4 In all other respects, the legal regulations shall apply to the Lessee's right to withdraw from the contract.
6. Technical equipment and connections
6.1 The use of the Lessee's own electrical installations using the power grid of the BESONDERE ORTE shall require the Lessee's prior consent in writing or text form. These installations shall comply with the general and special requirements of the local supervisory authority and the current standard of technical installations. The Lessee shall be solely responsible and liable for the equipment brought along and its effects on buildings and persons. Overloading of the power grid due to the use of technical (additional) equipment must be excluded. BESONDERE ORTE shall not assume any liability in this respect. BESONDERE ORTE shall record and charge the electricity costs incurred by the use of its own electrical equipment on a flat-rate basis.
6.2 The technical equipment and installations provided by BESONDERE ORTE shall be operated only by the personnel of BESONDERE ORTE or by the Lessee's personnel after instruction by BESONDERE ORTE.
6.3 The Lessor shall be notified immediately of any malfunctions of technical or other equipment provided by BESONDERE ORTE. They shall be remedied immediately, if possible. Payments may not be withheld or reduced to the extent that BESONDERE ORTETE is not responsible for such malfunctions.
7. Services of third parties
Insofar as the BESONDERE ORTES procure technical and other equipment from third parties for the Lessee at the latter's instigation, they shall act in the name of, on the authority of and for the account of the Lessee. The Lessee shall be liable for the careful handling and proper return of the equipment. He/she shall indemnify BESONDERE ORTE against all claims of third parties arising from the provision of such facilities.
8. Changes in the Number of Participants and Cancellation of Services
8.1 The number of participants shall become binding as of the 29th day prior to the event, but may be cancelled with the consequences set forth in subsections 8.4. to 8.6. above. Notwithstanding clause 8.4, a change in the number of participants must be communicated to the Lessor in writing or by e-mail no later than eight working days before the day of the event; an increase in the number of participants requires the Lessor's consent. Monday to Saturday and public holidays are working days.
8.2 The Lessor may make its consent dependent on a reasonable price change, provided this is not unreasonable for the Lessee.
8.3 The catering services in the contract shall become binding at the beginning of the 29th day before the start of the event.
8.4 If the Lessee cancels
a. from the beginning of the 29th day until the end of the 8th working day before the start of the event, catering services by reducing the number of persons by more than 20% or by reducing the other catering volume by more than 20%, or
b. from the beginning of the 7th working day before the start of the event or catering services ordered later,
the Lessee shall pay a cancellation fee.
8.5 If a fixed amount (e.g. per participant) is agreed for the catering services, the cancellation fee for case 8.4 a) shall be 30% of the difference between the actual payment amount (net) to be paid for catering services and the payment amount (net) agreed in the contract under "Catering". The cancellation fee for case 8.4 b) is 100% of the payment amount (net) agreed in the contract under "Catering".
8.6 For catering services which are invoiced according to the individual consumption of the participants on site, if the minimum consumption of € 8.00 per person is not reached, an amount equal to this minimum consumption shall be charged for the last agreed number of participants. The minimum consumption must be reached by each participant individually, i.e. if the consumption of one participant exceeds the minimum consumption, the exceeding amount cannot be credited against the minimum consumption of another participant.
8.7 However, with regard to both the cancellation fees and the calculation of the minimum consumption, the Lessee is allowed to prove that no damage was incurred at all or that the damage was significantly lower than the lump sum.
8.8 The cancellation fee shall be payable irrespective of whether the catering services are provided by the Lessor itself or by third parties.
9. Responsibilities of the Lessee
9.1 If special inspections, acceptances, approvals or permits are required for the staging of an event on the premises or in parts of premises of the BESONDERE ORTE, the Lessee shall be exclusively responsible for their timely application or execution, as well as for the assumption of costs and fees, insofar as these are not related to the nature of the premises. The Lessee shall be responsible for obtaining public-law permits and for complying with public-law requirements and all other standards and regulations.
9.2 During the event, the Lessee shall be subject to the domiciliary rights of BESONDERE ORTE throughout the entire premises. The instructions of BESONDERE ORTE or its representatives or employees shall be obeyed.
9.3 Decorative materials brought to the event must comply with fire prevention requirements. The BESONDERE ORTE shall be entitled to demand official proof thereof. Due to possible damage, the placement and attachment of decorative materials and other objects must be coordinated in advance with the BESONDERE ORTE.
9.4 Escape routes and emergency exits must remain unobstructed and freely accessible at all times.
9.5 The BESONDERE ORTE shall not assume any warranty for the suitability of the rooms, parts of rooms and facilities used for the purpose of the event. Any subsequent complaints in this regard shall not be recognized by BESONDERE ORTE.
9.6 The Lessee undertakes to take out liability insurance to cover any property damage, e.g. damage to the premises - including glass damage, voltage damage to IT technology and the rented furnishings as well as possible personal injury.
9.7 Upon request by BESONDERE ORTE, the Lessee shall be obligated to provide proof of appropriate insurance coverage. If the Lessee fails to comply with this obligation within two weeks after such request, BESONDERE ORTE shall be entitled to refuse the surrender of the rooms or to withdraw from the rental agreement.
10. Liability of BESONDERE ORTE and the Lessee
10.1 The liability of BESONDERE ORTE shall be limited to the breach of essential contractual obligations. These shall be the transfer of the leased property for use in accordance with the contract, access to the leased property and the observance of traffic safety obligations, insofar as these relate to the building and building systems and have not been assumed by the Lessee.
10.2 The strict liability of the BESONDERE ORTE for initial defects shall be excluded. The Lessor shall be liable in this respect only in the event of gross negligence or intent.
10.3 The above limitations of liability shall not apply in the event of injury to life, body or health.
10.4 The BESONDERE ORTE shall not be liable for the prevention of the transfer of use due to causes and unavoidable events for which they are not responsible (e.g. power failure, fire, water, fire, strike, etc.).
10.5 The Lessee shall be liable for all damage, including damage to the equipment and technical equipment provided, as well as damage to buildings and glass, culpably caused by him, his staff, visitors to the event or other third parties who are present in or on the rented premises and parts thereof with the knowledge, acquiescence or instigation of the Lessee during the period of their provision.
10.6 BESONDERE ORTE reserves the right to require the Lessee to pay a security deposit in the amount of EUR 50 to BESONDERE ORTE at the time the keys, access cards or chips ("Access Medium") to the premises or partial areas of premises are handed over. The deposit shall be paid to the Lessee after the end of the surrender period subject to clause 10.7.
10.7 In the event of loss of an access medium, the Lessee shall be obligated to pay BESONDERE ORTE an amount of EUR 50. In addition, BESONDERE ORTE shall be entitled to have new locks and security devices installed at the expense of the Lessee. The Lessee may prove that BESONDERE ORTE has suffered a lesser damage or no damage at all.
10.8 The Lessee shall be obligated to notify the BESONDERE ORTE without delay of the possibility of damage occurring and to report any damage that has already occurred.
11. Condition of the event rooms, duty to ensure traffic safety
11.1 All fire alarms, hydrants, smoke flaps, electrical distribution and switching cables, telephone distributors, air supply and exhaust openings, and escape routes must be kept free and unobstructed at all times.
11.2 All general technical and official regulations, in particular those of the building supervisory authorities and the fire department, shall be observed.
11.3 The Lessee shall assume the duty of road safety for the entire period of use of the leased rooms and parts of rooms. During the period of use, he/she shall ensure that the rented rooms and parts of rooms are in a roadworthy condition.
11.4 Installations, conversions or modifications of the existing equipment by the Lessee are not permitted.
11.5 Representatives and employees of BESONDERE ORTE must have access to all rooms and parts of rooms at all times. The service personnel commissioned by BESONDERE ORTE shall exercise domiciliary rights vis-à-vis the Tenant and, in addition to the Tenant, vis-à-vis visitors. The Tenant's domiciliary rights vis-à-vis visitors under the German Assembly Act shall remain unaffected.
11.6 Damages resulting from the non-observance of applicable legal regulations shall be borne by the Lessee.
12. Terms of use
12.1 Subletting or reletting of the leased rooms and parts thereof by the Lessee as well as invitations to sales or similar events shall require the prior consent of BESONDEREN ORTE in writing or in text form.
12.2 The use of the church rooms shall take into account the special character of these rooms. All decorations and other alterations within these event rooms are expressly permitted only after prior consultation with the BESONDERE ORTE. The rooms shall not be used for any purpose contrary to the dedication. The use may not be contrary to Christian tradition and preaching or for alternative offerings such as secular life celebrations.
12.3 Smoking in the function rooms is prohibited.
12.4 The plaster balconies of the Umweltforum may not be entered for safety reasons.
12.5 Animals, with the exception of guide dogs, may not be taken to events.
12.6 The Lessee undertakes to set the end of the event at 10 p.m. at the latest for noise protection reasons. In all other respects, the regulations of the Noise Protection Ordinance shall also be complied with before 10.00 p.m.. Use of the event rooms beyond 10:00 p.m. requires a separate agreement in writing or in text form. Any special permits required for this purpose must be obtained by the lessee in good time. The corresponding costs shall be borne by the lessee. The Lessee shall be liable for any legal claims of third parties arising from non-compliance with the noise protection ordinance or other regulatory provisions under public law. He/she shall indemnify BESONDEREN ORTE against all claims of third parties arising from the violation of public-law regulations on noise protection.
12.7 The loads applied to the floor may not exceed 5 kN/m² (Umweltforum), 3.5 - 5 kN/m² (Tagungswerk), 3.5 - 5 kN/m² (Französische Friedrichstadtkirche) or 3.5 kN/m² (Neue Mälzerei). Any damage resulting from non-compliance with this provision shall be borne by the Lessee.
12.8 The sale of the Lessee's own food and beverages is not permitted unless expressly agreed otherwise.
12.9 Ticket reservation, advance sale and box office are realized by the Lessee, unless expressly agreed otherwise.
12.10. The Lessee is aware that other events may take place in the rented venue at the same time as his event. Partial areas of the venue such as elevators, staircases, foyers and sanitary facilities may be shared by event guests of other events or tenants.
13. End of the contractual relationship/ Return of the premises
13.1 The exhibition or other objects brought along must be removed within the agreed rental period. If the Lessee fails to do so, BESONDERE ORTE may carry out the removal and storage at the expense and cost of the Lessee.
If the items remain in the event room, BESONDERE ORTE may charge compensation for use in the amount of the costs for room rental (daily rate) for the duration of their retention. The Lessee shall be permitted to prove to BESONDERE ORTEN that the damage was less.
13.2 All rooms and parts of rooms used shall be properly prepared at the end of the contractual relationship and left broom-clean (i.e. remove all information, decoration and work materials and separate waste generated during the event if possible and dispose of it in the waste containers provided). The final cleaning as well as waste disposal is carried out by the lessor and is included in the rental price. The tenant undertakes to dispose of glass, paper and ordinary household waste in the waste containers provided for this purpose. Any additional garbage that either exceeds the capacity of the garbage containers and/or is left lying around will be disposed of at a charge of EUR 65,- per employee hour and EUR 60,- per additional container.
13.3 If the time of performance is exceeded, BESONDEREN ORTE shall be entitled to charge a compensation for use of 10% of the agreed price for the room rental (daily rate) for each hour or part thereof, but no less than EUR 150. If a subsequent event is impaired by exceeding the performance time, the Lessee shall be obligated to pay damages.
14. Advertising
14.1 Advertising devices, signs, banners, etc. may be placed inside and outside the venues only with the prior express consent of BESONDERE ORTE at agreed venues. They shall be removed again within the agreed rental period.
14.2 The nailing and pasting of walls and the attachment of banners shall not be permitted.
14.3 BESONDERE ORTE may document the event by its in-house photographer and use the corresponding photos for in-house purposes (image brochure, images on homepage, social media, mailings, etc.).
15. Permission to share the use of the WLAN
15.1 BESONDERE ORTE shall allow the Lessee and its guests (hereinafter referred to as User) to share the use of the WLAN access and the Internet for the duration of the event in a venue of BESONDERE ORTE. Shared use is a service provided by BESONDERE ORTE and may be revoked at any time. Users shall not have the right to allow third parties to use the WLAN. BESONDERE ORTE do not warrant the actual availability, suitability or reliability of the Internet access for any purpose. They shall be entitled at any time to discontinue the operation of the WLAN in whole, in part or temporarily, to admit further co-users and to restrict or exclude the access of users in whole, in part or temporarily. In particular, the BESONDERE ORTE reserve the right, at their sole discretion and at any time, to block access to certain sites or services via the WLAN (e.g. sites glorifying violence, pornographic sites or sites that charge a fee).
15.2 The WLAN only allows access to the Internet, virus protection and firewall are not available. The data traffic established using the WLAN is not encrypted. The data can therefore possibly be viewed by third parties. The use of the WLAN is at the user's own risk. The BESONDERE ORTE shall not be liable for any damage to the User's terminal equipment caused by the use of the Internet access, unless the damage was caused by the BESONDERE ORTE intentionally or through gross negligence.
15.3 The user is responsible for the data transmitted via the WLAN, the chargeable services used via the WLAN and the legal transactions made. He is obliged to comply with the applicable law when using the WLAN. In particular, he/she shall not use the WLAN to retrieve or disseminate immoral or illegal content, shall not unlawfully reproduce, disseminate or make accessible any copyrighted goods, shall observe the applicable youth protection regulations, shall not send or disseminate any harassing, defamatory or threatening content, and shall not use the WLAN to send mass messages (spam) and/or other forms of unauthorized advertising. The User shall indemnify and hold harmless BESONDERE ORTE from and against any and all damages and claims of third parties based on any unlawful use of the WLAN by the User and/or any violation of this Agreement.
16. Note on data protection
16.1 Data protection is governed by the provisions of the Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG), the General Data Protection Regulation (DSGVO) and the Telemedia Act (TMG).
16.2 In particular, the use of the website (e.g. the contact form) and contract execution may result in the collection, storage and processing of personal data of the Lessee. The data shall be collected by the BESONDERE ORTE only for the intended execution of the respective contract or order, forwarded to the necessary extent to the third party, e.g. caterer, and / or processed. The data will not be disclosed to other third parties without express prior consent.
16.3 The detailed data protection provisions of BESONDERE ORTE Umweltforum Berlin GmbH, which are available on the website, shall apply.
17. Consumer dispute resolution act
The Lessor declares in advance that it is not prepared to participate in dispute resolution proceedings before consumer arbitration bodies within the meaning of Section 36 (1) of the German Consumer Dispute Resolution Act (VSBG).
This does not affect the possibility of dispute resolution by a consumer arbitration board in the context of a specific dispute with the consent of both contracting parties (§ 37 VSBG).
18. Online dispute resolution
In order to fulfill the information obligation arising from Regulation (EU) No. 524/2013 of the European Parliament and Council, we refer you to the link to the homepage of the European Commission's Body for the Online Settlement of Consumer Disputes, which can be accessed at http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr/.
19. Final provisions
19.1 Amendments or additions to the contract, the acceptance of the application or these terms and conditions for events must be made in writing or text form. This also applies to the change of the formal requirement itself.
19.2 The place of performance and payment is Berlin.
19.3 German law shall apply.
19.4 Should individual provisions of these General Terms and Conditions for Events be invalid or void, this shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions. In all other respects, the statutory provisions shall apply.
19.5 The German version of the General Terms and Conditions is the legally binding version.
Status: January 2024, BESONDERE ORTE Umweltforum Berlin GmbH, Pufendorfstr. 11, 10249 Berlin, Germany