Landlords may not simply pass on the costs of smoke detectors to their tenants in the service charge statement. This is because the costs are not apportionable. This was decided by the Federal Court of Justice (VIII ZR 379/20). In the case in question, a landlady installed smoke alarms and commissioned a company to carry out the maintenance. She informed her tenant of the expected costs and passed them on to the tenants in proportion to the living space in the service charge statement from 2016 under the item "Rent + smoke detector maintenance". The tenant filed a lawsuit and was proven right.
According to the BGH, it should make no difference whether a landlord buys or rents the smoke detectors. Because, according to the BGH, "that would mean in effect that the landlord would be given a way to easily [...] circumvent the burden of acquisition costs assigned to him in principle." The BGH nevertheless leaves another option open to landlords to pass on the costs of smoke detectors to their tenants. They have, for example, "the option of acquiring the smoke alarms and passing the costs on to the tenant by way of a modernization rent increase.
However, there is not yet a final decision in the current case. The BGH objected to procedural defects in the appeal ruling, stating that it "does not meet the requirements of a sufficient presentation of the subject matter of the dispute and its factual basis". The case, which involves a monthly item of around 10 euros on the ancillary cost statement, must therefore be heard again by the Cologne Regional Court.
Source: BGH/ VIII ZR 379/20
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