Living Room Blues

You have to hand it to Germans. They can be a very obedient folk.

According to the Reuters news agency, more than 100 German housing association tenants are sticking to tough new rules governing how they live.

Germans are long accustomed to being told what color the roof must be, how they can paint the walls or what times of the day they are allowed to drill and hammer, but some renters are finding themselves confronted with an entirely new set of rules.

The tenants have agreed not to use all the space in their apartments to avoid being forced to move out.

The local housing authority in the eastern town of Löbau said last week the new regulations stipulate that the tenants -- who all live on welfare -- now qualify only for smaller abodes.

There's just one glitch, though.

"The recipients are only allowed apartments of a certain size, but there aren't enough smaller apartments available," said Matthias Urbansky, head of the local housing authority.

Faced with nowhere else to go, the tenants are being allowed to stay in their current apartments, so long as the space they use does not exceed the new limit.

Settling into no man's land

"The people involved seem to be quite happy with the new setup," Urbansky said.

He was quick to add that housing inspectors pay regular visits to ensure that the tenants' possessions aren't encroaching on the off-limit space.

But not everyone sees the sense of inhabiting an apartment with no-go areas.

"It feels silly not being able to go into all the rooms of your apartment any more," one 49-year-old woman was quoted as saying in the Dresdner Morgenpost newspaper.

Then again, the tenants could look at the new arrangement as an exercise in minimalism. Zen meditation in an empty room, anyone? Just hope the inspectors can't see you through the window.