Statements
Nebenkostenabrechnung for a rented condo: from the WEG statement to your tenant’s bill
Short answer
The WEG annual statement (Jahresabrechnung) is not your tenant’s Nebenkostenabrechnung, the annual Nebenkostenabrechnung — it is the basis for it. You have to extract the items that can be passed on; manager fees, the maintenance reserve and repairs stay with the owner. The statement must reach the tenant within twelve months of the end of the billing period.
Switching pack for your owners’ meeting Request the pack
Two statements, two relationships
As an owner who lets out a condominium flat, you are in two legal relationships. Upwards, with the owners’ association (WEG): you pay the monthly owners’ contribution (Hausgeld) and receive the annual statement (Jahresabrechnung) under § 28 WEG. Downwards, with your tenant: you receive advance payments (Nebenkostenvorauszahlung) and owe them the Nebenkostenabrechnung — legally the Betriebskostenabrechnung, in English a service charge or utility cost statement — under § 556 BGB.
The two statements follow different rules, different deadlines and different allocation keys. Converting one into the other is the real work — and the point at which most private landlords lose money.
What can be passed on
Only operating costs as defined in the Operating Costs Ordinance (BetrKV) can be passed on, and only to the extent the tenancy agreement provides for it. From a typical WEG annual statement, that means:
Recoverable: water and sewage, heating and hot water, lift, street cleaning and waste collection, building cleaning, garden maintenance, communal electricity, chimney sweeping, property and liability insurance, caretaker, communal laundry equipment, and other operating costs where expressly agreed. Property tax (Grundsteuer) is recoverable too — but it is not in the WEG statement; it is in your own tax assessment.
Aerial, cable, fibre: Since 1 July 2024, cable TV fees can no longer be passed on. What remains is the electricity and inspection of a communal aerial, the electricity for a distribution system and — under narrow conditions — a fibre-optic provision fee (§ 2 no. 15 BetrKV). If the owners’ association is still paying a bulk cable contract, you bear your share yourself.
Not recoverable: manager’s fees and special fees, ongoing cable TV fees, contributions to the maintenance reserve (Erhaltungsrücklage), maintenance and repair costs, the WEG’s bank charges, the cost of owners’ meetings, the rent default risk allowance.
The dividing line runs between day-to-day operation and preserving the building. Servicing the lift is operation and can be passed on; repairing it after a breakdown is maintenance and cannot. Caretaker services can be passed on to the extent they relate to operation — the portion for repair work has to be taken out.
That is exactly why an annual statement showing “caretaker” as a single line is worthless to an owner who lets. Without the breakdown, you cannot prove the recoverable portion — and a tenant who objects will win.
The deadline that decides everything
The statement must reach the tenant within twelve months of the end of the billing period. If the period runs from 1 January to 31 December, the last day is 31 December of the following year.
Once the deadline has passed, any additional claim is excluded unless you are not responsible for the delay. You must still pay out any credit due to the tenant — the deadline only works one way.
This regularly clashes with the WEG side. The law sets no fixed deadline for the WEG’s annual statement; in practice, proper management means three to six months. If it arrives in November, you have one month left. If it arrives in February of the year after next, your deadline has already passed.
The courts give you little relief here. According to the Federal Court of Justice, you must bill your tenant even without an approved annual statement if necessary, based on the receipts you can request from the manager. The WEG manager’s fault is not attributed to you, but you have to show specifically what you yourself did — chasing the documents, demanding access to the receipts. If you simply wait, you lose the additional payment. A chronically late manager is therefore not a nuisance but a financial risk — and one of the better reasons to consider changing your property manager.
Heating and CO₂
Where heating is supplied centrally, costs must be billed by consumption: between 50 and 70 per cent by consumption, the rest by floor area (§ 7 HeizkostenV). This split is almost always done by the metering company on behalf of the owners’ association; you adopt the result for your unit.
If costs are not billed by consumption, the tenant may reduce their share by 15 per cent. They may reduce it by 3 per cent if no remotely readable meters are installed or the required consumption information is missing (§ 12 HeizkostenV). Older meters that cannot be read remotely must be retrofitted or replaced by the end of 2026 — a task for the owners’ association, but one whose failure reaches you as a reduction.
On top of this comes the split of the CO₂ price under the Carbon Dioxide Cost Allocation Act (CO2KostAufG). It has applied since 2023 and, for residential buildings, follows a ten-tier model: the higher the annual CO₂ emissions per square metre of living space, the larger the share the landlord bears. In the worst tier, that is 95 per cent.
The tenant’s share, the building’s tier and the basis for the calculation must be shown in the heating cost statement. If they are missing, the tenant may reduce their share of the heating costs by 3 per cent (§ 7(4) CO2KostAufG). Check this before passing the statement on.
The most common mistakes
The WEG statement passed on to the tenant as it is, including manager’s fees and the reserve
Twelve-month deadline missed while waiting for the WEG’s annual statement
Property tax forgotten — it is not in the WEG statement but in your own tax assessment
Allocation key not checked: if the tenancy agreement sets its own key, that one applies — not the WEG’s
Vacancy or a change of tenant not apportioned by time — you bear the costs of empty months yourself
Repair portion not taken out of the caretaker or servicing items
CO₂ information missing, so the tenant lawfully cuts the heating costs by 3 per cent
The allocation key is the point most often got wrong. Towards the tenant, the tenancy agreement comes first. If it is silent, since December 2020 the WEG’s key applies to let condominium units — usually co-ownership shares — unless it is inequitable, in which case floor area applies (§ 556a(3) BGB). Many older tenancy agreements, however, expressly specify floor area. If you then adopt the WEG key without checking, your statement is wrong — and that becomes expensive if the tenant objects.
What you can ask of your property manager
A manager that also offers rental management should deliver both in one go: the WEG annual statement and, derived from it, the Nebenkostenabrechnung for your tenant, with the correct key, maintenance portions taken out and the CO₂ split done. For individual let flats, this is unit management (Sondereigentumsverwaltung).
If you only have the WEG mandate, at least ask for a statement that shows recoverable and non-recoverable items separately. That is not an extra service; it is the basis that lets you meet your own legal obligation.
For unit management mandates, Ravenica prepares the Nebenkostenabrechnung directly from the WEG annual statement — no manual data transfer, and no time lost against the twelve-month deadline.
Frequently asked questions
By when must the tenant receive the Nebenkostenabrechnung?
Within twelve months of the end of the billing period (§ 556(3) BGB). After that you can no longer claim any additional payment, unless you are not responsible for the delay. Any credit due to the tenant must still be paid out.
Is a late WEG annual statement a valid excuse?
Only in exceptional cases. As a rule, you must bill your tenant on time even without an approved WEG statement (Federal Court of Justice, judgment of 25 January 2017, VIII ZR 249/15). The WEG manager’s fault is not attributed to you — but you are only excused if you can show specifically what you yourself did to bill on time. A chronically late manager is your problem, not your tenant’s.
Can I pass on the property manager’s fee?
No. Administrative costs are excluded from being passed on to residential tenants under § 1(2) no. 1 BetrKV — both the WEG management fee and the fee for managing your individual unit (Sondereigentumsverwaltung).
How is the CO₂ price split between me and my tenant?
Under the ten-tier model of the Carbon Dioxide Cost Allocation Act (CO2KostAufG). The higher the building’s CO₂ emissions per square metre, the larger the landlord’s share — up to 95 per cent in the worst tier. If the heating cost statement lacks the required information, the tenant may reduce their share of the heating costs by 3 per cent.
What about the maintenance reserve?
Contributions to it cannot be passed on, and neither can maintenance work later paid out of it. For tax purposes, the reserve only counts once it is actually spent — your share may then be deductible against rental income. If the work is a modernisation, it can support a rent increase under § 559 BGB, minus the maintenance portion.
About the author
Julius Launhardt
Founder, owner & managing director of Ravenica · Dipl.-Ing. (TUM)
Graduate engineer (Dipl.-Ing.) and M.Sc. in Management from the Technical University of Munich, IHK-certified property manager, TÜV-certified sustainability manager and long-standing member of the volunteer fire brigade. As founder and managing director of Ravenica in Nuremberg, he is responsible for day-to-day business, processes and long-term strategy. Knows building services, refurbishments, energy and inheritance cases first-hand, and owns several properties himself.
More about Julius Launhardt
