germany property mental-health guardianship
Who is responsible for incapacitated persons house key?
<p>I am a little confused as to who has the responsibility for looking after the key to the house of someone we know that tried to commit suicide.</p>
<p>The events:</p>
<ol>
<li>Alice enters a coma</li>
<li>I perform a wellness check and find them in the house (with a spare key)</li>
<li>Police and ambulance arrive and remove Alice</li>
<li>The next day Alice's daughter Betty (who doesn't live with Alice, and is 17) comes with her step mother Chloe to pick up the spare key</li>
<li>Alice and Chloe do not have a good relationship, Alice and Betty have an ok relationship</li>
</ol>
<p>Should I continue to steward the key, or give it to Betty?</p>
<p>I feel like Betty should have the key, in case they need something for Alice. However, I worry about making myself punishable by giving the key to someone without Alice's permission.</p>

<p>In Germany, people <em>are</em> allowed to commit suicide.
There is no obligation to live.
<em>Unless</em> there is a DNR or other express statement that Alice does not want nobody to come to her rescue (and it does not matter whether you were aware of such statement):</p>
<ul>
<li><em>Ex lege</em>, by law, there is now a <em>contract</em> between you and Alice.
This kind of contract is called <em>Geschäftsführung ohne Auftrag</em>, agency
without specific authorization, <a href="https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_bgb/englisch_bgb.html#p3093" rel="nofollow noreferrer">§ 677 ff. BGB</a>.</li>
<li>You <em>have</em> to act in the interest of Alice <em>as</em> you knew <em>at</em> the point in time you acquired the spare key.
It is irrelevant to you if you learned <em>later</em> Betty would be a better person to steward the key.
The <em>GoA</em>, the statutory contract, your duties and rights, is <em>completely</em> defined when you got the key.</li>
<li>It is <em>your</em> duty to keep the key, maintain the apartment, (feed pets?) and eventually return the key.
You are allowed to use <em>assistants</em>, e. g. Betty could become an assistant, but this does not terminate the contract between you and Alice, so legally all duties remain yours.</li>
<li>Since holding Alice’s key had the purpose to prevent imminent danger from happening to Alice, you can enjoy the <em>liability privilege</em> of § 680 BGB:
Only gross negligence and deliberate intent warrant damages.
For instance, if the court found your choice of an assistant was deliberately poor or grossly negligent, you’d be liable.</li>
</ul>
<p>Frankly, keep it simple:
The police ain’t no trained lawyers.
They never heard of <em>echte berechtigte GoA</em> during their training.
<em>If</em> you go to the station, ask/say “I know a friend who …” (without giving too many details).
Otherwise, I’m afraid the officers might make a huge deal out of it, but maybe simply <em>task</em> you to keep the key.
And it’s a bit of a different issue if an officer <em>orders</em> you to do something on behalf of the state.</p>
