Service charge statement deadline: by when your landlord must bill

Service charge statement deadline: 12 months after the accounting period

The landlord must account annually for the advance payments on service charges (Sec. 556 (3) sentence 1 BGB). The statement must be communicated to you no later than the end of the twelfth month after the end of the accounting period (Sec. 556 (3) sentence 2 BGB). The accounting period does not have to be the calendar year. If your tenancy agreement states July to June, for example, the deadline moves accordingly.

Accounting period	Statement must reach you by	Weekday	Status
1 January to 31 December 2024	31 December 2025	Wednesday	expired
1 January to 31 December 2025	31 December 2026	Thursday	expiring now
1 January to 31 December 2026	31 December 2027	Friday	open
1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026	30 June 2027	Wednesday	open

The law speaks of operating costs (Betriebskosten). This means the running costs incurred by the owner through the property and the use of the building (Sec. 556 (1) BGB). They are listed in Sec. 2 of the Operating Costs Ordinance (Betriebskostenverordnung, BetrKV), for example property tax, water and sewage, heating and hot water, lift, refuse collection, cleaning of the building and garden maintenance. In everyday language, they are usually called service charges (Nebenkosten). For the deadline, this makes no difference.

What counts: receipt by you and a formally correct statement

Receipt, not the date of the letter: A declaration made to a person who is not present only takes effect when it reaches the recipient (Sec. 130 (1) BGB). For a letter, this is usually when it is put in your letterbox at a time when the letterbox is still emptied. A statement put in the letterbox on the evening of 31 December may therefore be too late. If the letter is lost in the post or arrives late, this is in principle the landlord's risk (Federal Court of Justice, judgment of 21 January 2009, VIII ZR 107/08, press release no. 016/2009).

Formally correct: Only a statement that meets the formal requirements meets the deadline. According to the Federal Court of Justice, it must contain an orderly compilation of income and expenditure that is understandable in itself, so that you can check your share mentally and arithmetically (Federal Court of Justice, press release no. 025/2018). This includes:

1. the accounting period,
2. the total costs for each type of cost,
3. the allocation key and, where it is not self-explanatory, an explanation,
4. the calculation of your share,
5. the deduction of your advance payments and the result, i.e. an additional payment or a credit balance.

Calculation errors or individual incorrect items usually only make a statement wrong in substance, not formally invalid. Your objections help against this (see below).

No partial statements: The landlord does not have to account in parts (Sec. 556 (3) sentence 4 BGB). So they may wait until all costs for the year are known, but not beyond the 12 months.

Service charge statement too late: what this means for you

Once the deadline has expired, the landlord can no longer claim an additional payment, unless they are not responsible for the delay (Sec. 556 (3) sentence 3 BGB). This does not remove the obligation to provide a statement.

Situation	What applies
Statement arrives late and shows an additional payment	You do not have to pay, unless the landlord proves that they are not responsible for the delay
Statement arrives late and shows a credit balance	You are entitled to the credit balance; the landlord must pay it out or set it off
Landlord corrects the statement to your disadvantage after the deadline	no longer possible; corrections in your favour remain possible
You have already paid a late claim for an additional payment	You can usually reclaim the amount
No statement at all, tenancy ongoing	You are entitled to the statement and can withhold current advance payments until you receive it
No statement at all, tenancy ended	You can reclaim the advance payments for the period concerned if the landlord does not provide a statement

A late statement is therefore not worthless for you. It shows whether you get money back, and it is the basis for adjusting future advance payments (Sec. 560 (4) BGB).

Exceptions: when the landlord may still claim an additional payment

The exception is narrow. The landlord must set out specifically and prove that they are not responsible for the delay (Federal Court of Justice, judgment of 25 January 2017, VIII ZR 249/15, press release no. 011/2017).

Condominium flat, property management bills late: The landlord of a condominium flat (Eigentumswohnung) must in principle provide the statement within the one-year deadline even if the owners' resolution on the annual accounts is still missing. Fault on the part of the administrator of the community of owners is in principle not attributed to them. However, they must state what they themselves did as soon as it became foreseeable that the documents would not arrive in time. In the case decided, a reference to a management that had been dismissed was not enough (Federal Court of Justice, press release no. 011/2017).

Clause "statement only after the resolution of the owners' meeting": Such an agreement does not postpone the deadline. Deviations from Sec. 556 (3) BGB to the tenant's disadvantage are invalid (Sec. 556 (5) BGB).

Other cases that may come into consideration:

• The municipality sets the property tax subsequently and retroactively. The landlord must then provide the statement promptly after learning of it.
• You prevented a meter from being read.
• On the other hand, it is usually no excuse that a metering service or billing service provider commissioned by the landlord delivers late.

Once the obstacle no longer exists, the landlord must make up for the statement promptly.

Your deadline: objections up to 12 months after receipt

You also have a deadline. You must communicate objections to the statement to the landlord no later than the end of the twelfth month after receipt of the statement. After that, you can no longer raise them, unless you are not responsible for the delay (Sec. 556 (3) sentences 5 and 6 BGB).

Example: The statement for 2025 reaches you on 15 June 2026. Your objections must then reach the landlord by 30 June 2027. The deadline also runs if you have already made the additional payment.

How to proceed:

• Name each disputed item and the reason; a general "I object" is not enough.
• Send the objections in a way that lets you prove receipt, for example by handing them over against an acknowledgement of receipt or by messenger.
• You do not need a template. What matters are the date, the rented property, the accounting period and the individual points.

Inspection of receipts (Belegeinsicht): On request, the landlord must let you inspect the receipts on which the statement is based. They may also provide them electronically (Sec. 556 (4) BGB). For consumption-based heating costs, you can also inspect the consumption figures of the other flats, and you do not need to show a special interest for this. As long as the landlord wrongly refuses inspection, you do not have to make the additional payment (Federal Court of Justice, judgment of 7 February 2018, VIII ZR 189/17, press release no. 025/2018).

Quick check before the deadline expires:

1. Allocable? Only types of cost from Sec. 2 BetrKV that are agreed in the tenancy agreement.
2. Allocation key: Without an agreement, by floor area, and consumption-based costs by consumption (Sec. 556a (1) BGB). For a rented condominium flat, the key of the community of owners applies without an agreement, as long as it does not contradict fair discretion (Sec. 556a (3) BGB).
3. Heating costs: If they are not billed according to consumption although this is required, you may reduce your share by 15% (Sec. 12 (1) HeizkostenV).
4. Economic efficiency: The landlord must observe the principle of economic efficiency (Sec. 556 (3) sentence 1 BGB). Noticeable jumps compared with the previous year are a reason to inspect the receipts.
5. Advance payments: Do the amounts deducted match what you actually paid?

Additional payment: do you have to pay within 14 or 30 days?

Sec. 556 BGB does not set its own payment deadline. The additional payment becomes due on receipt of a formally correct statement, but you are entitled to a reasonable time to check it. You are in default at the latest if you do not pay within 30 days of the due date and receipt. As a consumer, this only applies if the statement specifically points out this consequence (Sec. 286 (3) BGB). You are in default earlier if the landlord sends you a reminder after the due date (Sec. 286 (1) BGB).

The 14 days stated in many statements are a payment target set by the landlord, not a statutory deadline. If you do not agree with individual items, you can pay the undisputed part and communicate your objections in writing. After the statement, both sides may adjust the advance payments to a reasonable amount in text form (Sec. 560 (4) BGB). This is not a rent increase; what applies to an increase in the net basic rent is explained in the guide Rent increase.

Service charge statement after moving out

If you move out, the same deadline applies. The landlord does not have to provide a statement early, because they do not owe partial statements (Sec. 556 (3) sentence 4 BGB). If you move out on 30 April 2026, for example, you receive the statement for January to April 2026 together with the annual statement for 2026, by 31 December 2027 at the latest.

Three points help you:

• Give your new address: in writing, so that the statement reaches you.
• Deposit: The landlord may retain a reasonable part until the statement, based on the expected additional payment, not the entire deposit.
• Meter readings: Record them in the handover report.

When you can give notice yourself and when the tenancy ends is explained in the guide Notice period for a flat.

Limitation: how long additional payments and credit balances can be enforced

The deadline for the statement and limitation are two different things. The deadline for the statement decides whether the landlord may claim an additional payment at all. Limitation decides how long a claim that has arisen can be enforced. The regular limitation period of three years applies to additional payments and credit balances (Sec. 195 BGB). It begins at the end of the year in which the claim arose and the creditor knows of it (Sec. 199 (1) BGB). Because the claim only arises with the statement, an additional payment from the 2025 statement that reaches you in 2026 becomes time-barred at the end of 31 December 2029. An action or the service of an order for payment (Mahnbescheid) suspends limitation (Sec. 204 (1) nos. 1 and 3 BGB), and a part payment causes it to start afresh (Sec. 212 (1) BGB). More on this in the guide Limitation periods.

Keep records: Keep the statement, receipts and proof of payment at least until your deadline for objections and the limitation period have expired.

Commercial premises: different rules

Sec. 556 BGB does not apply to shops, offices and practices. Sec. 578 BGB, which determines which rules for residential space also apply to other premises, does not mention it. The deadline for the statement with the exclusion of additional claims and the deadline for objections therefore do not apply by law. What the lease says is decisive. Without a provision, the landlord remains obliged to provide a statement within a reasonable time.

For landlords: how to meet the deadline

1. Request documents early: invoices, property tax assessment, metering service statement.
2. Remind the management: If the administrator of the community of owners bills late, follow up and document it. Without your own efforts, the exception will not help you (Federal Court of Justice, press release no. 011/2017).
3. If necessary, bill without a resolution: The owners' resolution is not a prerequisite for the statement to the tenant.
4. Prepare a formally correct statement: total costs, allocation key, share, advance payments.
5. Make receipt provable: handover against an acknowledgement of receipt or by messenger, well ahead of 31 December.
6. Keep receipts ready: On request, you must allow inspection, also electronically (Sec. 556 (4) BGB).

More topics on rent, notice and deposits can be found in the overview Tenancy law.