Gray legality: Varying degrees of housing illegality in Berlin’s rental cap

Abstract

This study aims to understand how housing legality is negotiated and contextually constructed by investigating the highly regulated German context of Berlin. It investigates the varying tenants’ experiences affected by the enforcement and abolition of the city’s rental cap law (Berliner Mietendeckel-Geset), implemented between February 2020 and April 2021. The article frames the case study of Berlin in the context of legality and develops a typology of legal and illegal practices within this case. Through collecting data from 19 tenants using semi-structured interviews to identify recurring narratives and experiences, the article explores how legality is negotiated and socially constructed. The results suggest that a spectrum of gray legality emerges from these negotiations, breaking the binary view of legality in the Global North. This spectrum covers legality, semi-legality, semi-illegality, and illegality. Gray legality refers to incidents where it becomes hard to judge the complete adherence or lack of compliance with a law. Hence, this article contributes to understanding illegality as a state–society relationship defined not only by laws and regulations but also by publicly accepted practices and the often-untraceable stakeholder negotiations.