Betriebskosten: What You Can Pass On, and the 12-Month Guillotine

Betriebskosten are only recoverable if the lease says so (§556(1) BGB). Without that clause the rent is all-inclusive and you eat the costs. The catalogue is §2 BetrKV – 17 categories: Grundsteuer, water and sewage, heating and hot water, lift, street cleaning and refuse, building cleaning and pest control, gardening, lighting, chimney sweep, property and liability insurance, Hauswart, shared aerial/broadband, laundry facilities, and sonstige Betriebskosten (Nr. 17) – which only count if each item is named individually in the contract.

Not recoverable, ever: administration costs (including your WEG-Verwaltervergütung), repairs and Instandhaltung/Instandsetzung, contributions to the Erhaltungsrücklage, bank charges, legal-expenses or rent-loss insurance, and costs attributable to vacant units.

The classic first-time-owner error is forwarding the WEG's Jahresabrechnung to the tenant. It is not a Betriebskostenabrechnung. You must strip out the administrator's fee, the reserve contribution and every repair line before you bill.

Allocation. Default is by Wohnfläche (§556a(1)) unless you agreed otherwise. Heating and hot water must follow the HeizkostenV: 50–70% consumption-based. Everything is subject to the Wirtschaftlichkeitsgebot – the duty to keep costs reasonable.

The deadline that ends arguments. §556(3) BGB: the statement must reach the tenant within 12 months of the end of the billing period. Miss it and your Nachforderung is gone – permanently – unless the delay genuinely was not your fault. "My WEG administrator was late" is normally not an excuse a court accepts. A credit balance in the tenant's favour still has to be paid out. Symmetrically, the tenant has 12 months from receipt to raise objections.

So for a calendar-year period ending 31 December 2026, the bill must be with the tenant by 31 December 2027. Set a calendar reminder for October, and chase the Verwalter early.

§556(4): the tenant may inspect the underlying receipts; you may supply them electronically.