Service charge statement checklist

What belongs in a service charge statement

A service charge statement only contains the recoverable operating costs under § 2 BetrKV that are agreed in the lease, for a period of at most twelve months. It must show the total cost of each item, the allocation key, your tenant's share and the deduction of their prepayments.

Management costs and repairs are not included. The allocation key calculator helps you work out which key fits which cost type: area, persons or consumption.

The order in which you prepare the statement

A service charge statement takes four stages: collect and check receipts, allocate costs, prepare the statement and deliver it with proof, then adjust payments and prepayments. If you keep to this order, you notice missing receipts early, not just before the deadline.

1. Collect all invoices and notices for the period: property tax, water, waste, insurance, communal electricity, maintenance, caretaker.
2. Set the billing period, check the lease and only include agreed, recoverable costs.
3. Reconcile each tenant's prepayments and check living areas and numbers of people.
4. Allocate costs by key, heating and CO₂ costs separately, a change of tenant pro rata, vacancy at your own cost.
5. Check the mandatory details, show household-related services under § 35a EStG and deliver the statement with proof.
6. Book back payments and credits, adjust prepayments and allow inspection of receipts.

How to split heating and CO₂ costs

With central heating you allocate 50 to 70 % of heating costs by consumption and the rest by area, typically 50/50, 60/40 or 70/30 (§ 7 HeizkostenV). You calculate one flat's share with the heating cost calculator.

If the building heats with gas or oil, you also split the CO₂ costs using the tier model, depending on the building's emissions. If this split is missing, your tenant may cut their share of the heating costs by 3 % (§ 7 (4) CO2KostAufG). You work out your share with the CO₂ cost split calculator.

Which deadlines apply to the statement

The statement must reach your tenant at the latest twelve months after the end of the billing period (§ 556 (3) BGB); if the period ends on 31.12.2025, that is 31.12.2026. After that you can no longer claim a back payment, unless you are not responsible for the delay. You must still pay out a credit.

What counts is when the statement reaches your tenant, not when you send it. Deliver it by messenger or by registered letter with proof of delivery, so you can show that it arrived. The service charge deadline calculator shows the exact deadline with weekday.

Your tenant has twelve months after receipt to raise objections. Until then they may inspect the original receipts.

What comes after dispatch

After dispatch you book back payments and pay out credits, and you can adjust the monthly prepayments to the actual costs. You declare the adjustment in text form (§ 560 (4) BGB), and it requires a formally and substantively correct statement.

The service charge prepayment calculator suggests the new amount per tenant. Give your tenant reasonable time to check a back payment.

Statements for a rented condominium

If you let a condominium, the owners' association's house money statement is not the statement for your tenant: the manager's fee and the maintenance reserve stay out, and you allocate each item by the key in your lease. The assistant for the service charge statement without an account reads the house money statement and prepares the statement per tenant from it.

Typical service charge statement mistakes

The most common mistakes are formal and can be checked before dispatch: wrong period, costs that were not agreed and missing mandatory details.

• A billing period of more than twelve months.
• Including costs the lease does not provide for, or passing on management and repairs.
• Spreading the costs of empty flats over the other tenants.
• Not splitting CO₂ costs and so risking 3 % of the heating costs.
• Settling a change of tenant without an interim reading or without a pro-rata split; the change-of-tenant service charge calculator helps.