Housing · Jurisdiction DE

Service charge statement

Service charge advances are instalments toward operating costs. Once a year the statement sets those advances against the actual cost.

In more detail

The Operating Costs Ordinance lists which costs may be passed on to tenants. Not every expense of the landlord is on that list. The statement has to be traceable: period, allocation key, total cost and the dwelling's share. Finmon does not audit a statement.

Background

As of the text of Civil Code section 556 (3): advances must be settled yearly, and the statement must reach the tenant at the latest by the end of the twelfth month after the accounting period. After that, a back-claim is generally barred unless the landlord is not responsible for the delay. A credit or an extra payment is the result of that statement, not a new tenancy. A tenants' association is a place to check the lines.

An example

The advances paid for a year sit above the allocatable costs of the dwelling. The difference is a credit. If they sit below, it is an extra payment. Whether each line may be allocated is not something Finmon checks.

A common misconception

An extra payment is a rent increase and automatically applies to every future month.

The extra payment settles a year that has ended. The future advance can be adjusted, and that is a different step from the statement itself.

Source: BGB § 556 und BetrKV. Last reviewed: 2026-10-31. Editorially reviewed on 2026-10-31. Next review 2027-10-31. Version 0.2.0. Finmon explains. It does not advise. Not investment, tax or legal advice.