Check your service-charge statement yourself — in 8 steps.
The practical checklist from 16 years on the landlord side. Go through your commercial statement point by point, before you pay.
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The 8 audit steps
In the order a professional works through a statement. The full check points and explanations come in the PDF.
Deadline & limitation
The residential 12-month cut-off does not apply to commercial leases — what counts instead, and when a claim is time-barred.
Formally correct
Are all mandatory items present? And does target match actual on your advance payments?
Compare & benchmark
Prior year and market norms as an early-warning system for outliers and misallocations.
Recoverability & repairs
The biggest error field: warranty, cut-off date, repairs disguised as maintenance, double billing.
Heating & CO₂
Conversion coefficients, meter reconciliation with the handover protocol, who bears the CO₂ costs.
Meters & calibration
Uncalibrated meters? You are often entitled to a reduction of the consumption-based costs.
Allocation key & vacancy
Does the key match the lease — and are you paying for someone else's vacancy?
Inspect the records
Your right to inspect the original records — and when withholding a payment gets risky.
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Two anonymised examples
Pharmacy chain, 3 locations
A €/m² comparison of heating costs revealed a clear outlier at one location. Cause: a meter past its calibration date and non-consumption-based billing — the 15% reduction right applied (§ 12 HeizkostenV).
Office tenant, new build
The statement listed repair costs although the system was still under warranty — plus an item already covered by a flat fee in the FM contract (double billing). Both surfaced only when checked against the service contract and maintenance logs.
Answered briefly
Does the 12-month cut-off period apply to commercial service charges?
No. Germany's Federal Court does not apply the residential cut-off (§ 556(3) BGB) to commercial leases by analogy (XII ZR 22/07) — a landlord can bill even after 12 months, unless your lease sets an explicit deadline. Without one, the ordinary 3-year limitation applies (§§ 195, 199 BGB).
When may I reduce heating costs by 15%?
If billing is not consumption-based although it could be, you are entitled to reduce your heating share by 15% (§ 12 HeizkostenV) — mandatory and not excludable by contract.
Do uncalibrated meters give me an automatic 15%?
No — this is often confused. Readings from uncalibrated devices generally may not be used (§ 37 MessEG) and you can challenge the statement. But the Federal Court allows a landlord to use the values if he proves they are correct (VIII ZR 112/10) — there is no automatic reduction here.
Do I have to pay for someone else's vacancy?
Usually not — vacancy costs are generally the landlord's risk. Whether they may be passed on depends on the lease; without an explicit clause the allocation is challengeable.
Can administration and maintenance costs be passed on in commercial leases?
Yes, unlike residential — but with limits: a maintenance allocation via a standard-form contract needs a cap, otherwise it is invalid (§ 307 BGB; BGH XII ZR 56/11). An administration-cost allocation is valid even without a cap (BGH XII ZR 109/08).
How are CO₂ costs split in commercial leases?
For commercial/non-residential buildings generally 50/50 between landlord and tenant (§ 8 CO2KostAufG); the residential staged model does not (yet) apply. Check what your lease says.