Property owners are obliged to provide their tenants with a proper statement of operating costs. In the following case (AZ VIII ZR 244/18), the owner of a residential complex consisting of several residential and commercial units of different sizes demands an additional payment of the operating costs from her tenants. The district court and the regional court reject her claim from the outset on the grounds that the present statement of operating costs is formally invalid.
Accordingly, in the view of the lower courts, the information on the allocation key and a precise overview of which areas, parts of the building or house numbers belong to a business entity is insufficient. This was because the owner had simply allocated the operating costs in the statement prepared according to "area" without providing any information on the actual size of the area or explaining exactly which parts made up the area. The landlady appealed against the decision of the local and regional courts. The Federal Court of Justice (BGH), on the other hand, confirmed the formal correctness of the present operating cost statement and overturned the ruling of the lower courts.
Accordingly, detailed information on the distribution key is only necessary if it is absolutely essential for understanding the statement. A statement of operating costs is formally correct if the total costs are compiled and include details and explanations of the distribution key. In this context, the designation "area" in the distribution scale is sufficient information and does not require any further explanation. Likewise, the calculation of the share of the costs to the respective tenants as well as the deduction of advance payments already made belong in every operating cost statement, as was the case in the present statement.
Source: BGH
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