The most important deadlines for service charge statements

Billing deadline

The so-called billing deadline (Abrechnungsfrist) or twelve-month deadline is the most important deadline for service charge statements. Under this rule, the landlord must deliver the service charge statement to the tenant within 12 months of the end of the billing period.

EXAMPLE: If the billing period runs from January to December 2020, the operating cost or service charge statement must reach the tenant by 31 December 2021 at the latest.

If the landlord has not met this deadline, the tenant has the right not to accept a statement that arrives late. Any additional payments it demands are then unenforceable – but this does not apply to any credit in the tenant's favour. Such credit must still be paid out to the tenant even after this deadline has passed.

EXCEPTIONS:
A late service charge statement is permissible only in a few cases: if the landlord can prove that the deadline was missed through no fault of their own, or if the tenant moved away without leaving a forwarding address and the former landlord had to track down the new address. However, the landlord must be able to clearly prove this to the tenant.

Payment deadlines

Once the service charge statement has been delivered within the billing deadline, the payment deadlines come into effect for tenants and landlords alike. This applies both to the deadline for the tenant to pay any additional amount demanded and to refunds owed by the landlord. In both cases, a payment deadline of 30 days applies.

IMPORTANT: Since the payment deadline is only 30 days, but an objection to the service charge statement is possible for 1 year, you should always pay under reservation (unter Vorbehalt). If your objection is successful, you can then reclaim part of the payment.

Review and objection deadline

Every tenant has the right to check their service charge statement for errors. According to case law, they have 12 months to do so. Within this period, they also have the option of lodging an objection to the service charge statement. The tenant may request the relevant receipts and invoices from the landlord.

Limitation period

The limitation period governs the time within which claims arising from a service charge statement can be enforced. Claims and refund demands arising from a statement can only be enforced for three years; this applies to tenants and landlords alike. This three-year limitation period begins at the end of the year in which the claims arose.

Once the limitation period has expired, either party can raise the defence of limitation. If you as a tenant are asked to make a payment, you can reject the landlord's claim without needing to give detailed reasons. After 3 years, there is no longer any need to engage with the substance of the claim.

EXAMPLE:
Receipt of the service charge statement: 24 June 2019
Start of the limitation period: 1 January 2020
End of the limitation period: 31 December 2022

Here the law is on the tenant's side: a tenant who has still not received a service charge statement after the billing deadline has expired can take legal action to obtain one. The landlord, on the other hand, who has missed the 12-month billing deadline may no longer make any claims. Another plus for the tenant: if the statement shows a credit in the tenant's favour, the landlord must transfer this money even if the statement was delivered late.

Another example is when the landlord fails to respond after the tenant has lodged an objection to a service charge statement. Unfortunately, a landlord is not obliged to reply to the tenant. There are no deadlines for a response or reaction from the landlord here.

The landlord is always obliged to settle the service charges after the end of the billing period agreed in the tenancy agreement. This billing period is always 12 months (usually from the beginning to the end of the calendar year, but sometimes starting from a particular month in the middle of the year). If the tenant moves out during the current billing year – which is usually the case – they are naturally keen to settle their service charges as quickly as possible. This also concerns the refund or offsetting of the rental deposit, because the landlord may retain part of it until the service charge statement has been prepared.

However, a tenant cannot demand that the landlord prepare the statement promptly after they move out. Here, too, the billing period runs until the end of the year or until the agreed end of the billing period. In the worst case, the service charge statement will not be issued until the end of the billing deadline, i.e. after a further 12 months. The reason for the delay in issuing the service charge statement is usually not ill will, but the fact that the landlord in turn depends on the billing data from the energy and utility suppliers before they can calculate everything.

It is important that the tenant records the readings on the heating and water meters on the day they move out. Of course, a tenant only has to pay for their actual consumption up to that day.

EXAMPLE of an unfavourable billing timeline:
Tenant moves out: 30 June 2020
End of the billing year: 31 December 2020
Deadline for the statement: 31 December 2021