Utility bill statement created in 10 minutes*

Which documents do I need for the utility bill statement?

• Condominium: the HOA statement from your HOA manager, the metering service's heating statement (if it comes separately) and your property tax notice.
• House: the year's invoices and notices, for example for water, waste, property tax, insurance and chimney sweep.
• In both cases: your rental agreement and the amount of the advance payments.

Which costs can I pass on?

You may pass on the 17 cost types listed in § 2 of the Operating Costs Ordinance if your rental agreement provides for it. For the first 16, a reference to the ordinance is enough. Other operating costs (no. 17), for example servicing smoke detectors, must be named individually in the rental agreement.

• Property tax
• Water supply
• Drainage (sewage)
• Heating
• Hot water
• Combined heating and hot water systems
• Lift
• Street cleaning and waste disposal
• Building cleaning and pest control
• Garden maintenance
• Lighting
• Chimney sweeping
• Property and liability insurance
• Caretaker
• Shared antenna and in-house distribution system
• Laundry facilities
• Other operating costs

You may not pass on management costs, the maintenance reserve, repairs or the costs of vacant units. Servicing the heating is recoverable, repairing it is not. Cable TV from a bulk contract may no longer be passed on since July 1, 2024.

How do I turn the HOA statement into a utility bill statement?

The HOA statement is between your HOA and you, not your tenant. That's why you can't simply forward it. Five steps turn it into the utility bill statement:

1. Check that the period of the HOA statement matches your billing period.
2. Remove what you bear yourself: management fee, account charges, maintenance reserve and repairs.
3. Take the items your rental agreement lets you pass on and add property tax from your own notice. It is usually not in the HOA statement.
4. Allocate using the key in your rental agreement; if it says nothing, the HOA key. Take heating and hot water from the metering service's statement.
5. Deduct the advance payments your tenant actually made. The result is a back payment or a refund.

The utility bill assistant takes these steps off your hands: it reads the HOA statement, marks what you bear yourself and calculates the rest for your tenant.

What from the HOA statement can I pass on?

You may pass on:

• water and sewage, waste, cleaning, garden maintenance, common electricity, lift, insurance, chimney sweep
• heating and hot water per the metering service
• caretaker, without the share for repairs and administration
• servicing of heating, hot water and lift; other servicing only if your rental agreement names it

You bear yourself: management fee, account charges, maintenance reserve and repairs.

How do I bill a rented house?

If your tenant lives in the house alone, they bear the agreed costs in full and you don't need an allocation key. Invoices with their own period, for example March to February, are assigned by one of two principles: the accrual principle puts them in the year the service was provided, the cash principle in the year you paid them. Both are allowed; the Federal Court of Justice approved the cash principle (VIII ZR 49/07). Within one statement you stick to one principle. Heating costs always follow the consumption period. The utility bill assistant reads period and amount of every invoice.

How do I bill if I live in the house myself?

If you rent out a granny flat or the second unit of your two-family house, you split the costs between you and your tenant, usually by living space. With no more than two units, one of which you live in, an agreement in the rental agreement takes precedence over the Heating Costs Ordinance for heating costs (§ 2 HeizkostenV).

What applies when tenants change during the year?

If a tenant moves out during the year, each tenant gets their own statement for their rental period. You usually split the costs to the day by rental period. Heating and water are allocated by the meter readings at the change, so have the meters read when the tenant moves out. You bear the costs for days without a tenant yourself. The utility bill assistant calculates the time shares for you.

Which allocation key applies?

• Living space: the statutory default if the rental agreement says nothing (§ 556a para. 1 BGB). For a condominium, the HOA key applies instead, see below.
• Consumption: by meter reading, if consumption is recorded and the rental agreement says nothing else.
• Persons or units: for example for waste or water without its own meter.
• The HOA key: for a condominium it also applies to your tenant if the rental agreement says nothing; if it is obviously unfair, living space applies (§ 556a para. 3 BGB).

If several parties live in the building, heating and hot water are allocated 50 to 70 percent by consumption, the rest by living space (Heating Costs Ordinance). Exactly 70 percent is mandatory for heating if the building does not meet the 1994 thermal insulation ordinance, is heated with oil or gas, and the visible pipes are mostly insulated. If you live in one of no more than two units yourself, you may agree something else in the rental agreement.

What does a utility bill statement look like with figures?

An example: your unit has 68 m², the whole building 680 m². 2 of the building's 20 residents live in the unit, and according to the meter your tenant used 40 of 700 m³ of cold water. They paid 12 × €150 in advance, so €1,800.

That totals €1,723.71. After deducting the €1,800 advance payments, your tenant gets €76.29 back.

Who pays the CO₂ costs of heating?

If the building is heated with gas, oil or fossil district heating, you share the CO₂ price with your tenant: the more CO₂ the building emits per square meter, the more you bear (CO₂ Cost Allocation Act, for statements from 2023). If the split is missing, your tenant may reduce their heating share by 3 percent (§ 7 para. 4 CO2KostAufG). This doesn't apply to heat pumps.

How much you bear depends on the building's CO₂ emissions per square meter of living space and year. The law has ten tiers: below 12 kg CO₂ per m², your tenant bears the CO₂ costs alone; from 52 kg you bear 95 percent. The CO₂ quantity and costs are on the fuel invoice. You calculate the value per m² from them; often the metering service does this in the heating cost statement.

What must the utility bill statement contain?

Your tenant must be able to follow the statement. According to the Federal Court of Justice, it must contain at least:

• The billing period
• The total costs per cost type
• The allocation key, explained where necessary
• The calculation of your tenant's share
• The deduction of their advance payments

If a detail is missing, the statement is invalid in full or for that cost type.

By when must the statement reach my tenant?

• Billing period: no more than twelve months, usually the calendar year.
• Billing deadline: the statement must reach your tenant twelve months after the end of the period, for the calendar year on December 31 of the following year. What counts is receipt, not sending (§ 556 para. 3 BGB). After that you generally can no longer claim a back payment; you still pay out a refund.
• After sending: your tenant can raise objections and inspect the receipts until the end of the twelfth month after receipt.

The deadline keeps running even if the HOA statement arrives late. Request it early and remind the HOA manager in writing. A back payment remains possible only if you are not responsible for the delay and then settle within three months. You have to prove that in a dispute.

How do I send the utility bill statement?

The statement doesn't need a signature; it only has to arrive. Email works if your tenant has given you their address for such letters. But you must be able to prove receipt: shortly before the deadline, use a messenger or registered mail with proof of delivery into the letterbox.

What happens with back payment, refund and advance payments?

Give your tenant a deadline for a back payment, 30 days is usual. You pay out a refund. With the statement you may adjust the advance payments in text form to the actual costs, up or down (§ 560 para. 4 BGB). CIRO suggests the new amount.

Which utility costs can my tenant deduct from their taxes?

Your tenant can deduct 20 percent of the labor costs for caretaker, cleaning or garden maintenance from their taxes if the labor share is shown in the statement. CIRO shows it per item as far as your invoices state it.