While landlords can pass on garden maintenance activities to tenants as operating costs, this is not the case with tree felling. This is because planting and maintaining plants, trimming hedges or lawn care are recurring activities that are part of the care of the common property. Tree felling, on the other hand, is a one-off activity that is rarely carried out due to the long lifespan of trees.
Thus, in a dispute (AZ 168 C 7340/19), the Leipzig Local Court ruled that the costs for cutting down trees may not appear as ongoing costs in the operating costs statement. A landlord commissioned a logger to cut down the black locust and corkscrew willow standing on his property. He allocated these costs to the tenants in the operating cost statement. Thus, each tenant should pay 50.45 euros more.
The tenants did not agree with this and filed a lawsuit. The court ruled in favor of the tenants. In order to charge costs as operating costs, the activities must take place on a regular basis. Even though "regularity" also includes a rotation of several years, this requirement does not apply to the felling of trees. Thus, the landlord must bear the costs for the logger himself.
Source: LG Leipzig
© fotolia.com
