Checking your Nebenkostenabrechnung: deadlines, allocable costs and common errors

For many tenants in Germany, the annual utility statement (Nebenkostenabrechnung) is the most expensive letter of the year, often several hundred euros due, sometimes far more. The real problem isn't the amount, though, it's accuracy: according to the German Tenants' Association (Deutscher Mieterbund), more than every second statement contains an error, almost always to the landlord's advantage. If you know the deadlines and which costs are even allocable, you won't lose money to miscalculated items, and you'll know exactly when and how to object.

Two deadlines, two sides: what § 556 BGB requires

§ 556(3) BGB sets two separate twelve-month deadlines, one for each side of the contract. The landlord must deliver your statement for a calendar year no later than twelve months after the billing period ends. For 2025, concretely: it must actually reach you, not merely be postmarked, by 31 December 2026. If it arrives even a single day late, the landlord generally loses the right to claim a back-payment from you. Any credit from that statement, however, still belongs to you.

In return, you as the tenant have twelve months from receiving a formally proper statement to raise objections. After that you generally can't assert substantive errors anymore, say a wrong allocation key or non-allocable items, even if you can prove them. The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) has clarified that a statement failing to meet the formal minimum requirements doesn't even start this objection clock. So receiving an incomplete or unclear statement doesn't automatically cost you your right to object.

What counts as a running cost, and what doesn't?

The basis is § 1 of the German Running Costs Ordinance (BetrKV): running costs are costs that arise regularly for the landlord from owning the land or the ordinary use of the building. The word "regularly" is the key distinction, because it excludes two categories that § 1(2) BetrKV names explicitly:

• Administrative costs: staff and overhead of property management, account-keeping, tax advice for the rental, brokerage fees for re-letting. These are always the landlord's own expense.
• Maintenance and repair costs: fixing the roof, heating system or pipes to remedy defects caused by wear or age. Again, that's the landlord's responsibility, not the tenants' collectively.

For residential leases this line cannot be shifted to the tenant's disadvantage under § 556(1) and (4) BGB, not even by a clause in the lease.

The running-costs table: allocable vs. not allocable

For the catch-all "other running costs" category (§ 2 no. 17 BetrKV), a blanket reference in the lease isn't enough. Each item billed this way must be named concretely in the contract, or the allocation is invalid.

The most common errors in practice

Tenant association case data points to the same recurring problems:

1. Non-allocable costs are billed anyway. Most often: administrative costs and repairs that appear as a line item even though they never belong in the statement.
2. A wrong or arbitrarily changed allocation key. Floor area, headcount or consumption must fit the cost type, and the key can't be switched mid-period without a factual reason.
3. Mixed costs aren't split out. If the caretaker does both garden upkeep (allocable) and repairs (not allocable), the statement must separate the two shares clearly.
4. The billing deadline is blown. If the statement arrives later than twelve months after the billing period ends, back-payments are barred, unless the landlord can prove the delay wasn't their fault.
5. Prepayments are miscredited or incomplete. A simple arithmetic error that often shows up quickly once you check it against your own bank statements.

Formal minimum requirements: when is a statement even valid?

A statement must at minimum include:

• the billing period (maximum twelve months),
• a breakdown of total costs by cost type,
• the allocation key used,
• the calculation of your share,
• the offset against your prepayments already made.

If any of these is missing, the statement is formally deficient. As noted above, your objection clock then hasn't even started, so you're not under pressure to react immediately. On top of that, § 259 BGB gives you the right to inspect the original invoices without having to state a particular reason. The Federal Court of Justice has confirmed this explicitly for tenancies.

Special case: heating costs and your 15 percent reduction right

For centrally heated buildings, the German Heating Costs Ordinance (HeizkostenV) requires consumption-based billing, typically 50 to 70 percent by consumption and the rest by floor area. If it's billed entirely by area instead, or the landlord hasn't installed remotely readable meters, you have a flat reduction right: you may cut your share of heating and hot-water costs by 15 percent without justifying it in detail (§ 12 HeizkostenV). This right can't be excluded by contract, and it's enough for just one of the two shares, heating or hot water, to be billed incorrectly for the reduction to apply to the whole cost.

Step by step: how to check your statement

1. Deadlines first. Check the date it reached you. Is it more than twelve months after the billing period ended? Then back-payments are already barred.
2. Check formal completeness. If the period, total costs, allocation key or offset of your prepayments is missing, the statement is formally flawed.
3. Do the maths. Compare the credited prepayments against your own bank statements and check whether your share was calculated correctly with the stated key.
4. Check each line against § 2 BetrKV. If an item that isn't on the allocable list appears, say administrative costs or a repair, that's a clear point to challenge.
5. Request to inspect the receipts if doubts remain. You may view the original invoices, usually at the landlord's or property manager's office.
6. Compare against the Betriebskostenspiegel. The German Tenants' Association publishes yearly averages per cost type. If a line item is far above average, it's worth asking for detail.

Found an error? How to object effectively

A valid objection must be specific: blanket statements like "this isn't right" aren't enough. Name exactly which item you're challenging and why, for example: "Item 'property management', €180, is not an allocable running cost under § 1(2) BetrKV." Send the objection in writing, set a deadline for correction, and keep proof of sending. If the landlord doesn't respond, a local tenants' association can help, or, if you've already paid a disputed back-payment, you can reclaim it through the court order-for-payment procedure.

Do I still have to pay if I object?

An objection doesn't automatically suspend your obligation to pay. If you pay a disputed back-payment, do so explicitly "under reservation" (unter Vorbehalt), so you can reclaim it if your objection turns out to be justified.

What if I've already missed the objection deadline?

Objections are then generally barred. An exception applies if you can prove the missed deadline wasn't your fault, for example because the statement was formally so deficient that the clock never started.

Can the landlord just change the allocation key?

No, not arbitrarily, and not retroactively within a running billing period. A change needs a factual reason, for example installing consumption meters that weren't there before.

Get ahead of it in the lease itself

Many disputes start because the lease never clearly spells out which running costs may be billed at all, or because "other running costs" are named only in a blanket clause instead of individually. Catching this at signing saves the fight over the statement later. That's exactly where Vimmo helps: the app's contract check scans your lease specifically for unclear or invalid running-costs clauses before you sign, see also our post on checking your lease. The rent check further helps you judge whether the agreed running-costs prepayment is even realistic to begin with. And when the deposit comes up at the end of the tenancy, the same principles apply: know your deadlines, object in writing and specifically, and don't accept anything unjustified.

This article is not legal advice. Vimmo provides AI-based estimates without warranty.

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