Terms of Use for Apartment Seekers

These terms of use govern the use of neoflat. neoflat is a platform for apartment searching. It is operated by m4ma GmbH, Mendelssohnstr. 13, 81245 Munich, Germany. The terms apply to everyone who uses neoflat to search for an apartment – with or without an account.

neoflat and the milo portal share one account. The milo portal, as the tenant portal, has its own terms of use. Anyone who uses both – i.e. is a tenant and searches for an apartment at the same time – agrees to both documents, each separately. Agreeing to one does not replace agreeing to the other. If one role ends, the agreement for the other remains in place.

neoflat facilitates contact between apartment seekers and providers – landlords and property management companies. neoflat does not rent out apartments itself. Listings come from the providers. Whether you receive a viewing, an offer, or a lease is decided solely by the provider. Using neoflat does not create any entitlement to an apartment, to a viewing, or to a response from the provider.

You can search, filter, and view apartments without creating an account. For everything beyond that, you need an account: applying and submitting documents, joining a waiting list, registering for a viewing, the shortlist, saved searches with notifications, a search profile, and managing your applications.

Registration is free. Keep your login details secret. You can delete your account at any time; what happens to your data then is described in section 10 and in the privacy policy.

The search function is open to everyone. It filters by city, number of rooms, rent, and features.

With an account you can create a search profile. It describes what you are looking for: number of rooms, size, budget, move-in period, features, and who will move in. We automatically match your search profile against available listings and show you suitable matches. Providers cannot browse search profiles; they only see aggregated numbers without names. You can change or delete your search profile at any time.

You can additionally save a search. We will then notify you by email about new matches. Every such email contains an unsubscribe link; you can also turn off the notification in your account.

The shortlist lets you save listings that interest you. The provider of a listing only sees how many people have shortlisted it – and only once that number reaches three. The provider never learns who shortlisted it.

If you gave separate consent when creating your account, neoflat may email you to invite you to express interest in a shortlisted listing. This consent is voluntary, is not part of agreeing to these terms, and can be withdrawn at any time. Without consent, you will not receive such an email. The sender is always neoflat, never the provider. You will receive at most one such invitation per listing.

Note for legal review: this section only describes the invitation. The legal basis is the separate consent, not this text – as decided in ADR docs/decisions/2026-08-06-merkzettel-einladung-einwilligung.md.

You can register for viewing appointments directly on the listing – this requires an account (section 3). We need your name and a way to contact you for this. This information is passed to the provider of the listing so the appointment can take place. If an appointment is full, you are placed on the waiting list for that appointment.

Some listings additionally have a waiting list for the apartment itself. This waiting list also requires an account (section 3). Order is based on the time of registration; there is no paid priority. You can leave the waiting list at any time; the link is in the confirmation email – this link works even when you are not logged in, for example if you have forgotten your password.

Applying requires an account (section 3) – as does submitting further documents for an existing application. By applying, you send the provider of a listing your details: name, contact information, desired move-in date, number of people moving in, employment, and – if you wish or the listing requires it – documents such as proof of income. The application goes to the provider of that specific listing. Other providers do not see it. m4ma operates the platform and processes the data only to the extent operation requires.

We request sensitive information in stages: the exact amount of income and a credit report (such as Schufa) only once the provider shows recognizable interest in your application – not already with the first application.

neoflat helps the provider organize many applications. For this purpose, applications are automatically structured and given a score that is derived traceably from your information. The decision on your application is made by the provider, not the system. Paid service tiers do not change the ranking.

You can invite other people to join your application, such as a partner or roommate. Only invite people who know about it and agree. The information in your application must be accurate.

You can withdraw an application at any time.

Some listings mention a fixture buyout ("Ablöse"): the previous tenant offers furniture or fittings for payment. This is an agreement between you and the previous tenant. neoflat only displays the information and does not become a party to that agreement. Whether you take over a buyout is voluntary. You can also apply without taking one over.

Searching for an apartment via neoflat is free: searching, shortlisting, search profile, viewings, waiting list, applying. In addition, neoflat offers paid service tiers. Their features and prices are disclosed to you before you order. No costs arise without an explicit order.

You can delete your account at any time. You can individually remove or deactivate shortlist entries, your search profile, and saved searches. Application data and uploaded documents are kept for a limited time after the application process ends and then deleted. Waiting-list entries are deleted after six months at the latest, regardless of whether an account exists. Details, deadlines, and your rights are set out in the privacy policy.

Provide accurate information. Do not enter other people’s data without their consent. Use neoflat only for apartment searching – not for automated scraping, advertising, or posting third-party content. Keep your login details secret and inform us if you suspect misuse of your account.

m4ma may change these terms with six weeks’ notice. You will be informed by email and in the app, and must actively agree to the new terms the next time you use the service.

Note for legal review: there are no active users yet. This initial version therefore needs neither a notice period nor a re-acceptance wave; the notice period applies from the first change after go-live. Same pattern as the tenant terms version change on 2026-08-05, Gate P206. Legal sign-off of this initial version for real users is a separate item before the first go-live (see the draft notice at the top of this page).

German law applies, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. Should individual provisions be invalid, the validity of the remaining provisions is unaffected. For consumer disputes, we refer to the EU Commission’s online dispute resolution platform (https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr). We are neither obliged nor willing to participate in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board.

• A1 Applying and the waiting list originally worked without an account; the question was how these terms would be effectively incorporated for users without an account (§ 305 (2) German Civil Code – notice and acknowledgment at the respective form), since there was no such notice on those forms.
• A2 A property management organization can view a single search profile within its own organization (built for the case "the property manager suggests an apartment to their tenant", search-profiles/routes.ts).
• A3 Does the description of the automatic score satisfy the requirements of Art.
• A4 The sentence "the information in your application must be accurate" – how far can it go without touching the recognized limits of a landlord’s right to ask questions.
• A5 The pricing page (tarife/page.tsx) advertises four tiers: search agent (free), verified (one-time), premium (monthly), broker service (via the employer).
• A6 The specific retention period for closed applications is a per-provider placeholder in the code (ScoringConfig.retentionMonths, TODO(legal) in applicants/retention-cron.ts).
• A7 This section is deliberately not drafted.
• A8 Jurisdiction clause.

In addition, outside this document but to be handled at the same legal review: the processing on the search side (search profile, application, shortlist, waiting list, viewing) now has its own privacy text (DS-F1, 2026-08-07) at /datenschutz-suche - also not yet reviewed by counsel, with its own summary of open questions (B1-B5), of which B1 and B3 overlap with A2 and A3 here and should be discussed together.