Service charge statements in Germany: tenant changes, vacancy and heating costs

A German service charge statement (Nebenkostenabrechnung) is quick to produce as long as the same tenant lived in every flat all year. It gets difficult in three places, and that is where most objections come from: when a tenant moves out mid-year, when a flat stands empty for a while, and with heating costs, which have to be split by consumption.

The deadline: twelve months after the end of the period

Under § 556(3) of the German Civil Code (BGB), the tenant must receive the statement no later than twelve months after the end of the billing period. If it arrives later, the landlord can usually no longer demand an additional payment. If you bill by calendar year, you have until 31 December of the following year. Blina Desk warns you if a statement is created after this deadline.

Allocation keys: floor area, people, units, consumption

Every cost type needs its own allocation key. Property tax and building insurance are usually split by floor area, waste collection by people or units, water and heating by consumption. In Blina Desk you set, for each cost type, the key by which it is split: floor area, people, units or consumption.

Tenant change: two tenants, one flat, one year

If one tenant moves out on 30 April and the next moves in on 1 May, each gets their own line in the statement. One distinction is often overlooked:

• Costs that do not depend on consumption (property tax, insurance, caretaker) are split by days. The first tenant pays for 120 days, the second the rest.
• Consumption-based costs are not split by days. If the meters were read when the tenant moved out, each tenant’s actual consumption counts. If not, the software splits heating costs by heating degree days, the typical heating demand of each month, and water by days.

Vacancy: the landlord bears the risk

If a flat stands empty for three months, those three months cannot be passed on to the other tenants. Blina Desk counts the days without a lease and shows them on a separate line, “Vacancy (landlord)”. The statement adds up, and everyone can see why part of the costs stays with the owner.

If two leases overlap by mistake, the shared days are not counted twice for the vacancy. If the statement then distributes more than the actual costs, Blina Desk points it out when creating it.

Heating by consumption: § 7 HeizkostenV

With a central heating system, § 7(1) of the German Heating Costs Ordinance (HeizkostenV) requires at least 50 and at most 70 percent of the costs to be split by measured consumption, the rest by floor area. In Blina Desk you enter the share; if you leave it empty, 70 percent by consumption applies.

For units with a single tenant during the period, the statement shows clearly how the amount is made up: the allocation key, the total consumption of the building, the unit’s consumption and its share. If heating is not billed by consumption, the tenant may cut their share by 15 percent under § 12(1) HeizkostenV. The software points that out as well.

Advance payments: what was agreed, not just what came in

The balance due or credit is the difference between the costs and the advance payments. If the lease is set to “Advance + settlement” with a monthly advance, Blina Desk calculates with the advances owed and shows next to them what was actually paid, if it differs. That way unpaid rent is not silently mixed into the service charges. Without a stored advance, what was paid counts.

From draft to tenant

The statement is produced as a PDF on your letterhead, approved and sent to the tenants. Around it, the Real Estate module helps with the related tasks: meter readings, deposits with interest and settlement on move-out, three-stage reminders and adjusting an index-linked rent to the consumer price index.

In short

A service charge statement that survives an objection needs three things: the right key for each cost type, a clean split for tenant changes and vacancy, and heating by consumption. The module page shows what this looks like in Real Estate, and you can try it free for 30 days.

---

Status and sources (accessed on 25 October 2026, all in German)

• § 556 BGB, para. 3: twelve-month deadline for the statement
• § 7 HeizkostenV, para. 1: 50 to 70 percent by consumption
• § 12 HeizkostenV, para. 1: right to a 15 percent reduction

This article is not legal advice. Found a mistake? Write to us at info@blina-desk.com.