Hausgeld in Nuremberg: what is normal and what is too low?

What Hausgeld is made up of

Hausgeld — the monthly owners’ contribution — is not a price but an advance payment. The owners resolve on an annual budget (Wirtschaftsplan, § 28 WEG), and that budget determines each unit’s monthly advance payments. At the end of the year, the accounts are settled; the difference between budget and actual figures is the settlement balance (Abrechnungsspitze).

It contains three blocks:

Operating costs — heating and hot water, water and sewage, waste, buildings insurance, electricity for common areas, cleaning, winter service, lift servicing, garden maintenance. This block is the largest and moves most with energy prices.

Management costs — the property manager’s fee, bank charges, special fees where applicable. What is customary in the market and what we charge is set out in our price overview.

Contribution to the maintenance reserve (Erhaltungsrücklage) — the amount saved for future maintenance work. It is not a running expense but a transfer into the association’s assets.

Typical amounts

Total Hausgeld

€3.50–5.00/m²/month

of which maintenance reserve

€0.80–1.50/m²/month

of which management

€0.50–0.90/m²/month

Lift surcharge

approx. €0.30–0.60/m²

Underground car park surcharge

charged per space

For a 70 m² flat, that comes to a Hausgeld of about €245 to €350 a month. The range is wide because year of construction, fittings and condition matter more than location: a refurbished late-19th-century building without a lift sits at the lower end; a 1970s complex with a lift, underground car park and a façade refurbishment coming up sits at the upper end. The range applies to Nuremberg’s housing stock as well as to Fürth and Erlangen.

Why a low Hausgeld can be a warning sign

Buyers are pleased with a Hausgeld of €2.80 per square metre. They should not be.

Operating costs can hardly be squeezed — waste charges, insurance and water cost what they cost. Where Hausgeld is strikingly low, the saving has almost always been made in one of two places: the reserve or the management. The buyer pays for both later — one as a special levy, the other as trouble.

Do the maths before you buy: with 70 m² and a reserve contribution of €0.40 per square metre, that adds up to €336 a year. Over ten years, that is €3,360 per flat. A façade refurbishment in a complex with fourteen units can easily cost three times that per unit. The difference is paid by whoever owns the flat when the work is resolved — not by whoever paid too little for twenty years.

What to check before you buy

The seller does not owe you these documents automatically — ask for them, and do not settle for the latest statement alone. A seller who cannot produce the resolutions register either has a poor property manager or a reason.

Who pays when the flat changes hands?

The Hausgeld debt falls on whoever is the owner when a payment falls due. What counts is registration in the land register (Grundbuch), not the notary appointment and not the key handover. There are often months between signing and registration — during that time, the seller still owes the Hausgeld.

Two points are regularly overlooked:

The settlement balance falls on whoever owns the flat when the resolution is passed. If the previous year’s statement is resolved in May and the flat changed hands in March, the buyer owes the additional payment — even for a period when the flat did not yet belong to them. Between buyer and seller, the purchase contract can provide otherwise; towards the owners’ association, the rule still applies.

The seller’s arrears do not pass to the buyer. The owners’ association can only claim them from the seller. The buyer should nevertheless get confirmation before the notary appointment that nothing is outstanding — otherwise they are buying into an association with a cash-flow hole.

When Hausgeld is not paid

Arrears are not a marginal issue. The money is missing from the account immediately, and the other owners effectively cover the gap until it is recovered.

The owners’ association enforces the claim — not the individual owner, and not the manager in its own name. The route is a reminder, a court payment order (Mahnverfahren) or a lawsuit, and in persistent cases enforcement.

Hausgeld claims have a special feature: in a forced sale (Zwangsversteigerung), they enjoy priority in rank class 2 (§ 10(1) no. 2 ZVG), ahead of the banks’ mortgages. This only applies to current amounts and arrears from the year of the attachment and the two years before it, and to no more than five per cent of the assessed market value in total. In practice, an association that enforces early and consistently recovers its money far more often than one that waits two years.

For particularly serious and repeated breaches of duty, the law provides as a last resort for the owner to be forced to sell (§ 17 WEG). It is a rare and laborious route, but it exists — and in some cases the threat alone has an effect.

For prospective buyers, the level of arrears in the association is therefore a key figure, like the reserve balance: it says something about payment discipline, but even more about how consistently the manager acts.

Recoverability: where landlords go wrong

For owners who let their flat, Hausgeld splits into two parts. Operating costs under the Operating Costs Ordinance (BetrKV) can be passed on to the tenant, to the extent agreed in the tenancy agreement. The manager’s fee, the contribution to the maintenance reserve and all maintenance and repair costs cannot.

The WEG annual statement is therefore not the tenant’s Nebenkostenabrechnung. It is the basis for it, and the split has to be evident from it; for let units, unit management (Sondereigentumsverwaltung) takes care of both. A statement that mixes maintenance and operation in one line makes recharging impossible for a letting owner — a point worth raising when comparing property managers.

For tax purposes, the non-recoverable parts are deductible expenses for a letting owner — with one exception: the contribution to the maintenance reserve only becomes deductible once the association actually spends the money on work. Owner-occupiers can claim the labour share of household services and tradespeople’s work under § 35a EStG, for example cleaning, garden maintenance or repairs — this requires a separate certificate from the property manager.

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Ravenica shows operating costs, management and maintenance separately in the annual statement — the basis for letting owners to recharge correctly.